Physician Sues Massachusetts General Hospital Over Ownership Of His Inventions.
In a front-page story, the Boston Globe (4/4, A1, Weisman) reports, "For the past decade, Dr. Joseph A. Grocela has tinkered in the basement workshop of his Weston home, coming up with inventions that range from urological devices to a voice box that helps musicians harmonize and improves intonation for the tone deaf." Grocela is now "in a legal fight with the hospital where he practices, Massachusetts General Hospital, and its corporate parent, Partners HealthCare System Inc., over who owns the rights to those creations and others." Although "Grocela, a urological surgeon who also teaches at Harvard Medical School, acknowledges that every two years he signs a contract with Mass. General that gives the hospital system ownership rights to his inventions," he argues that the contract does not apply to what goes on in his own home, while he is not working.