Brainstorm Health: Trump’s Doctor Note, Nokia Digital Health, Another Novartis CAR-T Approval

On Tuesday, former Donald Trump doctor Harold Bornstein dropped a bit of a bombshell in a CNN interview, claiming that the glowing doctor note he wrote for then-candidate Trump in 2016 was actually dictated by Trump himself. “He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein said Tuesday. If that’s true, and combined with Bornstein’s public revelations to the New York Times about President Trump’s hair growth medication, Bornstein may be in some pretty serious legal and ethical hot water—and “absolutely should lose” his medical license, one of the country’s leading medical ethicists tells Fortune.

Bornstein claims that he faced a “raid” shortly after his February Times interview revealing the hair drug tidbit. That would suggest a major relationship change between Trump and Bornstein from 2016, when the physician’s letter made what many considered to be hyperbolic assertions about the candidate’s health. Bornstein’s note claimed Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected” and that his laboratory tests were “astonishingly excellent”—wording that appeared to mimic the vernacular of one Donald Trump.

Now that Bornstein is claiming the original letter was essentially dictated by Trump (a stark turnaround from his previous assertions the physician “really” wrote the letter himself), the gastroenterologist might face censure by the New York medical board, according to Dr. Arthur Caplan, the founding director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York and one of the nation’s most prominent bioethicists.

“It does risk Bornstein’s license because it’s fraud,” Caplan told Fortune in an interview Wednesday. “He absolutely should lose his license. In the middle of a presidential campaign, he said he’d written [that letter] a couple of times. That’s fraud and has bigger consequences.” Fortune reached out to Dr. Bornstein through his office, but a representative declined to comment.

Bornstein’s actions could, theoretically, risk both state and federal blowback, Caplan said—although he doesn’t think anything stronger than an official censure or warning is likely. “He talked about Trump’s medications publicly. That’s a big no-no with both ethical and legal implications under HIPAA,” Caplan explained, referencing the federal medical data privacy law. But, he admitted, things aren’t likely to go that far since Trump would have to make a HIPAA violation claim. “Short of rape, murder, or drug dealing, it’s hard to lose a license,” said Caplan.

Dr. Anirban Maitra, an oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, pointed out on Twitter that Bornstein’s admission about the dictated doctor note could amount to misconduct under New York law. “Permitting, aiding, or abetting an unlicensed person to perform activities requiring a license” is indeed listed under the state’s Office of the Professions definitions of professional misconduct by doctors.

Regardless of how the Bornstein saga plays out, Caplan asserts that the bigger problem is the way in which presidential candidates’ health is assessed. “We have to have a better system. Presidential candidates should go through independent medical assessment,” he says. That doesn’t mean revealing irrelevant personal details (such as, say, hair growth medication). But an independent evaluation could go a long way toward informing the public while preventing situations like Trump’s allegedly faked doctor note.

Read on for the day’s news.

DIGITAL HEALTH

Nokia pulls the plug on its digital health unit. Nokia is calling it quits on its digital health hardware and services gambit. The company announced Wednesday that it will sell off the division to its original owner, Eric Carreel, the co-founder of Withings (which Nokia bought back in 2016 for about $200 million). (TechCrunch)

INDICATIONS

Novartis scores another approval for its landmark CAR-T drug. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday gave Swiss drug giant Novartis a second approval for its pioneering CAR-T cancer therapy, which uses patients' own immune cells (re-engineered outside the body and then replicated) to destroy blood cancers. This time, the approval is for a type of blood cancer called large B-cell lymphoma. That also means Novartis will be taking on rival Gilead, which is the only other company to have an approved CAR-T therapy on the market (both received the regulatory green light in 2017). (FiercePharma)

THE BIG PICTURE

Vaping companies get a stern FDA warning. The FDA is cracking down on 13 companies the agency says is selling e-liquids that are used in popular e-cigarette products that may resemble candy or juice and accidentally be consumed by children. "It is easy to see how a child could confuse these e-liquid products for something they believe they’ve consumed before—like a juice box. These are preventable accidents that have the potential to result in serious harm or even death," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in a statement. "Companies selling these products have a responsibility to ensure they aren’t putting children in harm’s way or enticing youth use, and we’ll continue to take action against those who sell tobacco products to youth and market products in this egregious fashion." (NPR)

REQUIRED READING

Facebook Just Lost Its Latest Battle In a Crucial Privacy Case, by David Meyer

FTC Warns 6 Major Companies That Their Warranty Coverage Is Illegal, by Lisa Marie Segarra

Apple Has Already Built Its Next Big Business, by Don Reisinger

Hawaii Will Likely Become the First State to Ban Certain Sunscreens, by Aric Jenkins