Assessing Faculty Financial Relationships With Industry

Abstract

Faculty researchers are increasingly involved in financial relationships with their research sponsors. Guidelines for what constitutes a conflict and how the conflict should be managed are needed if researchers are to have consistent standards of behavior among institutions. JAMA. 2000;284:2209-2214.

Financial Ties between DSM-IV Panel Members and the Pharmaceutical Industry

“…Rather, we identify categories of financial interest and reserve judgment on whether they represent a real, perceived, or potential COI. Our approach is congruent with other publications that make a distinction between the finding of ‘financial interests’ and the judgment of ‘conflicts of interest’ [19,20,21]. Specifically, there is less disagreement about what constitutes a ‘financial interest’ than there is about what makes a ‘conflict of interest’.…”

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest Among Speakers, Moderators, Presenters, and Discussants at National Trauma Meetings

“…[21][22][23] The concerns associated with unclear COI policies and the impact industry relationships may have on the information presented are not exclusive to surgical academia. 24,25 Other investigations have reported similar findings for university faculty engaged in nutritional research, with 30-34% of faculty possessing a financial COI and 92% of published studies reporting results favorable to their industry partner's interests. [26][27][28] Our study has several limitations.…”

Improving the use of research evidence in guideline development: 4. Managing conflicts of interests

“…The only empirical studies of management decisions in conflicts of interest detail a number of management strategies that are commonly used by university conflict of interest committees [35,40]. These possible management strategies include: disclosure of the financial tie(s) in publications and public presentations; reducing equity holdings to below 5%; altering consulting agreements to ensure separation between consulting and research work; eliminating the financial tie; appointing oversight committees to review the scientific process and resulting research; and recusal.…”

“…Government and professional society guidelines recommend that institutions "manage" the financial conflicts of interest of their researchers. Disclosure of financial ties in all publications and presentations is the most frequently used management strategy [40-43]. …”