Paid Leave For Rutgers Neurosurgery Chair Under Investigation

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A man who once occupied one of the highest-paid positions at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has now been relieved of his posts.

Dr. Anil Nanda was "relieved" of his job as chair of the neurosurgery department at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University announced Friday and confirmed to Patch Monday.

Dr. Nanda was also relieved of his post as chief of neurosurgery at University Hospital in Newark.

When Rutgers first hired Nanda in 2018, the university agreed to pay him $2 million a year. Now that he is being relieved of his two posts, he will lose much of that. However, while he is the subject of an investigation by Rutgers, Nanda will still be paid his guaranteed academic base salary as a member of the Rutgers faculty, which is $225,000 a year.

He could also be paid an additional $250,000 possible in supplemental pay based on "clinical productivity" while he is being investigated.

Rutgers first placed Dr. Nanda on administrative leave (with pay) on November 12, 2021, when the school launched an investigation into a number of allegations made against him. According to NJ.com, the allegations involve "ghost surgeries," where some of Dr. Nanda's colleagues are alleging he was not fully present in the operating room of surgeries done under his name at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

Also, there have been complaints with how he ran the neurosurgery departments at both medical schools. One woman who reported to him filed a lawsuit, alleged a “toxic work environment” under Nanda, according to NJ.com. He has since counter-sued.

He will remain on paid administrative leave until that investigation is completed, said a Rutgers spokesperson. The investigation into Nanda is being done by former New Jersey Comptroller Matthew Boxer.

Dr. Robert Johnson, dean of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, also released a statement Friday saying he has “lost confidence in Dr. Nanda’s ability to serve in his administrative leadership roles and, as dean, is taking these steps to meet the needs of the neurosurgery departments, their patients, faculty and staff.”

Dr. Nanda was first hired to oversee Rutgers' neurosurgery program in 2018 and his hiring was announced in a glowing press release from the university. Rutgers noted his master's degree in public health from Harvard School of Public Health, and his previous jobs as head of neurosurgery at Hahnemann in Philadelphia and pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

When Dr. Nanda was hired, Rutgers agreed to pay him $2.2 million a year, making him one of the highest-paid employees at Rutgers.

While at Rutgers, Nanda started a series of global neurosurgery meetings, where he and his Rutgers/RWJBH colleagues led online global symposiums to discuss neurosurgery with speakers from 34 different countries.

Dr. Nanda's lawyers released the following statement to NJ.com, saying they will aggressively defend his name:

“The ham-fisted actions by New Jersey Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School are completely unjustified and outrageous,” said Michael Critchley and Amy Luria of Critchley, Kinum & Luria. “Dr. Nanda has fully cooperated with all inquiries and has discredited the scurrilous and baseless allegations leveled against him. Today’s actions, in violation of clear public policy, are yet another act of retaliation taken by those who are and have been trying to silence Dr. Nanda. Dr. Nanda will aggressively take action to protect his reputation.”

This is only the latest high-ranking Rutgers surgeon to be hit with a scandal: In 2020, the former chair of the Rutgers skin cancer program pleaded guilty to official misconduct, burglary and computer theft.

That man is Dr. James Goydos and he started his 300-day jail sentence in January of 2022. He was also accused of filming dozens of women as they used a second-floor women's bathroom at the Rutgers Cancer Institute, however those charges were later dropped. Read that story: Ex-Rutgers Cancer Doc Admits To Theft, Sentenced To Jail (July 2020)

Before he was fired, Goydos was considered one of the world's leading experts on melanoma. Some of his work in the field is currently being developed into tumor-fighting drugs to treat skin cancer, breast and prostate cancer.

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