Former HMS Researcher Sues University

A former Harvard Medical School (HMS) instructor is suing the University for breaching her employment contract, defaming her name in the academic community and causing her "emotional distress."

Both sides have submitted statements to Middlesex Superior Court, and the case, filed last December, has not yet gone to court. The plaintiff, Dinah K. Bodkin, has demanded monetary compensation for all professional and personal damage--an amount initially estimated at $450,000.

While working as a researcher at Brockton/West Roxbury Veterans Administration Medical Center (BWRVA), one of the hospitals affiliated with HMS, Bodkin began to question the accuracy of experiments performed by a co-researcher in her laboratory.

Within a year of her complaint, Bodkin said, the head of the laboratory chose not to renew her annual contract. She alleged that this was in retaliation for her speaking out and claimed that her termination violates a stated University policy.

Harvard denied responsibility for the termination, saying that Bodkin was an employee of the hospital, not the University.

Although HMS and BWRVA investigations concluded there was no scientific misconduct, Denise A. Chicoine, Bodkin's attorney, said the case stands whether or not the research actually was flawed.

The Road to Conflict

In April 1994 Bodkin started working in Associate Professor of Medicine Kenneth A. Bauer's laboratory on a project funded by a three-year grant, studying the genetics of factor VII hemophilia. One other researcher, Arnaldo A. Arbini, was working with them.

Bodkin said she raised doubts about the validity of Arbini's research after he made his first public presentation of his work during a faculty seminar in April 1995. At the time, Bauer and Arbini were preparing to submit the data for publication.

In her complaint, Bodkin questioned the methodology and conclusions of Arbini's research.

"In November 1995, Dr. Bodkin reviewed her co-worker's research manuscript and discovered the presentation of the data in the manuscript was inaccurate and misleading," the complaint reads. "Dr. Bodkin advocated certain changes to the manuscript to make it conform to accepted principles of scientific research, but Dr. Bodkin's co-worker refused to make the changes."

In an interview Friday, Bodkin claimed that Arbini failed to follow correct scientific procedure, drawing his conclusions from experiments performed for different lengths of time.

Arbini, however, said all of his experiments ran for the same lab time. "It was just a big misunderstanding," he said.

An HMS panel convened after Bodkin filed a formal complaint with HMS and found Arbini innocent of scientific misconduct. But the panel did urge the lab to "keep better track of data," said HMS Director of Public Affairs Donald L. Gibbons.

Arbini said he admits his mistake, but said the incomplete recording had no effect on the conclusions of the research.

"[For] the exact experiment that I decided to use, I did not enter the date or all of the exact conditions in my notebook," he said. "The only reason for that was inexperience."

For his part, Bauer acknowledged that the experiment was "not well recorded" but said these would not affect the science of the paper.

"There were problems with the documentation of the details," he said. "The conclusions were valid."

Bauer and Arbini performed the experiments again in 1996 and received the same results. "The original results were validated," he said.

According to the complaint, Bodkin gave a letter to Bauer on Nov. 13, alerting him to the alleged inaccuracies, which, the complaint states, he said he would look into before publishing the article.

"In late November 1995, Dr. Bodkin learned that her co-worker's research manuscript had been submitted for publication without the necessary changes to make it conform to accepted principles of scientific research," the complaint reads.

Bauer denied that the published paper advanced any inaccurate conclusions.

"These have been published," he said in an interview Friday. "The published data stand...the science is valid."

On Dec. 8, 1995 Bodkin filed a formal charge of misconduct with HMS.

Less than a week later, according to the complaint filed with the court, Bauer terminated Bodkin's employment at the BWRVA "in retaliation for Dr. Bodkin's written disclosure of unethical practices in the Bauer laboratory."

The Charges

"My position is that my termination was whistleblower retaliation," Bodkin said. "If Harvard had come to the correct conclusion [in their investigation of my termination] and upheld their responsibility to a whistleblower, then there would be no damage to my career."

Bodkin said the University looked into her termination the following year and determined that it had nothing to do with whistleblowing. Bodkin then asked a separate agency, the U.S Office of the Special Counsel, to begin an investigation into her termination. The investigation is still under way, according to Bodkin.

Bodkin's charges against the University focus mainly on its alleged failure to uphold the "Faculty Policies on Integrity in Science," an HMS code of conduct at the time. She claimed that the policy offered to protect "whistleblowers" from retaliation for revealing the unethical practices of others.

"Defendant Harvard's 'Faculty Policies on Integrity in Science' imposed an affirmative duty on all faculty members, trainees and students, including Dr. Bodkin, to maintain standards of scientific practice 'consonant with science of the highest integrity,'" the complaint reads. "[and] to report violations of the 'Faculty Policies on Integrity in Science.'"

According to the complaint, this policy puts a contractual obligation on HMS to protect all members of its faculty, trainees and students from "adverse employment actions taken in reprisal for reporting violations" of the policy.

Bodkin has filed six counts against Harvard: breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, tortious interference with contractual relations, negligent emotional distress, breach of fiduciary duty and negligent supervision and negligent retention.

Harvard breached its contract by failing to prevent her termination at the lab, by removing her from her position as a faculty member and by failing to prevent other retaliatory conduct by Bauer, according to the complaint.

Bodkin said the University's failure to enforce its policy has destroyed her career.

"I have made efforts to find work and friends of mine have made efforts and that has led no where," Bodkin said.

Harvard's Defense

Harvard's main defense is to deny jurisdiction over Bodkin's employment.

Kimberly S. Budd, Harvard's attorney in charge of the case, said Bodkin's position does not fall within Harvard's domain.

"She wasn't Harvard's employee and neither was Dr. Bauer," Budd said. "The [Department of] V[eteran's] A[ffairs] is a government agency and we can't control what they do."

But, while Bodkin's salary did not come from the University, she performed duties for HMS.

When the teaching hospital hired Bodkin in 1992 she automatically became an HMS instructor, although Gibbons said her appointment to the Harvard faculty was contingent on her remaining at the BWRVA post.

Bodkin said her salary was paid jointly by the BWRVA and the National Institutes of Health. "She had a Harvard appointment as do several thousand people at Boston hospitals," Gibbons said. "They are appointed to the department at the school, and they have complete academic responsibilities."

Bodkin's contract with the lab was renewed on a yearly basis.

"When I left it was at the end of my appointment but there was an understanding that as long as my grant was funded my appointment would be renewed every year," Bodkin said.

But Bauer said there was no such agreement. "She had a term appointment at the VA and her term appointment ended," he said.

The Integrity of the Research

After Bodkin filed charges of scientific misconduct with HMS, an HMS panel spent nearly nine months on its inquiry, which eventually exonerated Arbini.

In February, the Department of Veterans' Affairs also launched an investigation in response to letters from Bodkin's representative, Barney Frank '61 (D-Mass.), and the non-profit government watch-dog group, the Project on Government Oversight (PGO).

In a letter to John Feussner, chief research and development officer for the VA headquarters, Frank wrote "it is my impression that Ms. Bodkin and Ms. [Danielle] Brian [executive director of the PGO] make a persuasive case that the Department ought to conduct an investigation into the project in question."

According to the letter, Brian met with Associate Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Jane H. Corlette about the case. "She related to me that as Harvard did not make a finding of misconduct, the University was unable to discuss the case with us. She encouraged me to bring our concerns to the Department of Veterans' Affairs," the letter said.

Bodkin said the VA investigation determined that there was no scientific misconduct.

She said she and the PGO intend to continue to pursue the allegations.

She has been working with Senator John Kerry's office but said 'it's not clear that they will continue to support the case."