Have They Finally Got to You? - the Firing of Dr Gu

Introduction - Dr Gu's History of Activism Made Him Unpopular at Vanderbilt

We first wrote in February, 2018, about the plight of Dr Eugene Gu, a surgical resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).  Dr Gu has a history of political activism, resulting in being  blocked on Twitter by President Trump after Dr Gu criticized him online, until a court forced Trump to unblock him on First Amendment grounds.  After Dr Gu posted a photography of himself kneeling in support of the protest of football player Colin Kaepernick, the mother of a pediatric patient apparently refused permission for Dr Gu to treat her child based on the kneeling post, and VUMC responded by suspending him.

Dr Gu Fired

The story reappeared in the media in June, first in the Duke University Chronicle, then in the Tenneseean and USAToday.  From the latter,

A Tennessee doctor who became a social media sensation because of statements on President Donald Trump, racism and Colin Kaepernick - and who later sued the president over First Amendment rights - is losing his job at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Eugene Gu, 32, a Vanderbilt surgery resident, said Friday that Nashville's biggest hospital is ending his five-year residency after only three years.

Technically, Vanderbilt has decided not to renew his contract with the hospital, Gu said, but he argues the effect is 'no different than being fired.'

Dr Gu argued that the reason he was effectively fired was that VUMC disapproved of his political views as expressed on social media.

'The take-home message here is that there is an unwritten rule for surgical residents and that is rule is, always make your program look good and always make your hospital look good, and often that means stay silent,' Gu said.

VUMC denied that:

Vanderbilt said in an email statement Friday that the decision not to renew Gu's contract was not a result of his criticism of Trump, his lawsuit, or his public opposition to racism. The hospital has said previously that all disciplinary actions against Gu relate to his work performance and professionalism.

'Regarding other allegations that Dr. Gu is making about the Medical Center, I would ask that you please consider these as allegations and nothing more,' John Howser, a spokesman for the hospital, said in the email. 'To date, we have not engaged in a point by point rebuttal of Dr. Gu’s many claims over the past two-plus years. At this time we will continue to maintain this stance.'

VUMC, however, has not provided any clear evidence of deficient performance or insufficient professionalism.  The Duke Chronicle article noted arguments that Dr Gu made suggesting that it may not have had much such evidence.  First,

After an appeal, a May 17 letter to Gu from VUMC General Counsel Michael Regier—delivered at the request of Jeffrey Balser, president and CEO of VUMC—cited a 'lack of sufficient improvement in performance and conduct in key areas' after the probation. The letter, which was obtained by The Chronicle, indicated that the most "significant areas of concern" were 'patient care, communication, and medical knowledge.'

However, Dr Gu cited one example of a criticism of his performance that seemed rather trivial.

when he was serving on consult call, meaning he would respond to any surgical needs throughout the night. There was a patient for whom he was supposed to identify the course of treatment—which he did, correctly, as he did with the imaging and other relevant details. His colleagues, nevertheless, 'nit-picked' Gu about 'every little detail on the case'—claiming he didn’t 'dot all of his i’s and t’s' by not providing the patient’s height and weight—which Gu said were irrelevant.

Also, he noted that

Kyla Terhune, the residency program director for general surgery, was two-faced in her interactions with him. A text message obtained by The Chronicle showed that Terhune wrote 'Nice presentations' to Gu after he spoke at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Tumor Board. He said she complimented him for his performance after going through two surgeries for him. But when it came time for performance review, Terhune said his performance was 'terrible' in those same instances, Gu noted.

Given the local and social media attention this story has received, one might wonder why, if VUMC had such a strong case against Dr Gu, it has avoided ever airing any details about it.

Furthermore, the article noted an apparent anomaly in the narrative of how the patient's mother came to complain about Dr Gu.

Before the story broke, VUMC declined to comment more than a dozen times, saying that it does not comment on personnel matters. After it was published, Howser wrote in a statement that Gu did not need to change his political views.

'Dr. Gu has never been told that he must change his political views or the substantive content of his personal participation on social media platforms,' the statement read. 'He has been advised of the need to adhere to VUMC’s social media policy, which requires that persons who are identified as representatives of VUMC clearly state that their views are their own. He has also been advised that resident physicians should be professional and respectful in their interactions and communications with and about one another.'

In the kneeling photo, one cannot make out that his badge says Vanderbilt Medical Center on it, even when zoomed in on. Gu's Twitter bio had no reference to Vanderbilt, though he had tweeted about Vanderbilt seven times prior. Twice, he tweeted that his views communicated on Twitter do not represent VUMC.

Yet Vanderbilt, after first suspending Dr Gu, ended his residency prematurely.  Since surgical residency normally lasts five years, it seems reasonable to say Dr Gu was fired, and that such Vanderbilt's action will likely damage his career.  Since Vanderbilt has not provided any convincing evidence that Dr Gu was incompetent or unprofessional, one is left with the nasty suspicion that it fired him because refused to stay silent about political beliefs that did not accord with those of Vanderbilt leadership.


Discussion

This story suggests that in our current political era, health care professionals, particularly trainees or others at the bottom of the totem pole, may be increasingly beholden to the political sensibilities of their bosses, and hence increasingly wary of espousing political views that run counter to those of their bosses. 

While it is reasonable for residency programs to require their trainees to be professional, since when did "professional" mean stifling political views that might offend hospital corporate leadership?

As we wrote in February,

 It may not be unreasonable to expect physicians and physician-trainees, as medical professionals, to avoid getting into political arguments with patients.  However, it is unreasonable to expect physicians to avoid making any public political comments that could ever be expected to offend any patient or relative.

And this case also raises the question of whether it was the patient's mother's offense, or the Department Chairman's offense, that mattered.

Attempts to censor political speech in academia are unfortunately not rare (see the website of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, for many examples).  However, they have not seemed to be that frequent in medical education. (Our most recent example before this case was from 2015.)

I wonder, though, if the ongoing attacks on free speech and the free press (e.g., look here and here) by the current President and his cronies are emboldening censorship in US society.  The President does set the tone and agenda for the country.  A president who personally threatens free speech and a free press will encourage other would-be censors to crawl out of the woodwork. 

We will only be able to restore the freedoms promised in our Constitution, and ostensibly inherent in the nature of academic organizations, if we can get a new president who upholds the worth of these freedoms, and actually will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Musical Interlude

Some lyrics from Dr Wu, Steely Dan, by Fagen and Becker

Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me Doctor