House Investigates Research Problems at VA Hospital in West L.A.

The U.S. House of Representatives has opened an investigation of clinical research problems at the Veterans Affairs medical center in West Los Angeles.

Two House subcommittees overseeing veterans issues are probing events leading to the unprecedented research shutdown last week at the VA West Los Angeles Healthcare Center, the nation’s largest VA medical facility.

In a scathing letter Thursday to the VA undersecretary for health, three House members said the research suspension, which they agreed was justified, was “the most serious matter to confront VA medical research in recent years.” They have scheduled an April 21 hearing in Washington on the research crisis at the West Los Angeles hospital.

The investigation will also cover 1995 ethics violations in cardiology research reported last week by The Times. The most serious violations involved Dr. Philip T. Sager, who conducted or oversaw electrophysiology research on four patients without first obtaining legally required informed consent, according to an internal hospital document. He has expressed remorse over the incidents, which did not physically harm the research subjects.

House staffers are pursuing several questions raised by The Times’ report, including:

* Whether the hospital failed to report the ethics violations to appropriate federal and state authorities.

* Whether the hospital’s original inquiry into the violations was hampered by a conflict of interest, as some health care providers have alleged.

* Whether hospital officials had the proper legal authority to make a settlement with Sager, who remains the chief of cardiac electrophysiology.

In a statement Thursday, House members expressed outrage.

“Apparently at least one VA researcher didn’t understand that our veterans are not experimental animals,” said Rep. Terry Everett (R.-Ala.), chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. “This cannot be allowed to happen again.”

“Veterans check in [to] the VA to be cared for, not to give scientists help with experiments,” said the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida. “Researchers at West L.A. appear to have crossed the line set in law and regulations.”

A call to the hospital for comment late Thursday was not returned.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Office for Protection From Research Risks ordered the “preemptive” research shutdown at the West Los Angeles hospital to protect people and animals in studies. The coordinated actions came after repeated warnings that administrative procedures for evaluating studies and protecting research subjects fell short of federal regulations.

“We need to be sure the profound problems at one medical center are not symptomatic of a more widespread disease infecting others,” said Florida Republican Cliff Stearns, chairman of the veterans subcommittee on health.