UPMC’s structural heart president, Hemal Gada, MD, might have been terminated for whistleblowing, according to a federal lawsuit that alleges retaliatory firing following his reports of conflicts of interest regarding Edwards Lifesciences and alleged racism within UPMC.
- UPMC is the largest non-government employer in Pennsylvania, operating a massive network of over 40 hospitals, 800+ outpatient sites, and 100k employees.
- Since UPMC receives Pennsylvania tax funding, it’s a public body under state Whistleblower Law, protecting employees who report waste or wrongdoing.
- Edwards also has substantial medical device contracts with UPMC that require conflicts to be disclosed to Value Analysis Teams and physicians using Edwards products.
The whistleblower retaliation suit details how Dr. Gada originally criticized Edwards’ SAPIEN 3 valve clinical trial data on LinkedIn in December 2023.
- The LinkedIn posts offered detailed breakdowns of EARLY-TAVR’s shortcomings, an Edwards-funded trial which led to SAPIEN’s FDA approval for asymptomatic AS patients.
- This essentially made Dr. Gada one of the loudest voices advocating against unnecessary TAVR in younger patients.
- Dr. Gada then noticed that Edwards employees and UPMC leadership began viewing his LinkedIn profile.
- Eventually, an external investigation into his social media use found no wrongdoing.
Dr. Gada later met with UPMC’s Value Analysis Team to voice his concerns after discovering the system’s CEO received over $300k in compensation for sitting on Edwards’ board while using the health system’s corporate jet for board meetings, something which was undisclosed to other UPMC leadership.
- Shortly thereafter, UPMC’s counsel closed his complaint without resolution, per the lawsuit.
But Dr. Gada’s troubles with UPMC didn’t end there, and in mid-April 2025, he reported text messages between his colleagues regarding UPMC’s new Interventional Cardiology Fellowship.
- Allegedly, the messages stated that patients dislike brown physicians with accents and expressed concern about replacing white doctors with brown ones.
On August 3rd, 2025, five months after reporting the racist texts, UPMC launched an internal investigation into Gada’s professional conduct, followed by paid suspension on August 6th, and an emergency board termination August 13th.
- This all happened one day before a Medical Executive Committee due process meeting that would have given Dr. Gada a chance to respond to the accusations of misconduct.
The Takeaway
While this lawsuit is fresh and details are still being clarified, it does point to potential conflicts of interest in the largest medical system in one of America’s most developed states. Only time will tell how this case is settled, but right now it reads like punishment for speaking out against improper conduct.
