Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13029

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Ritchie J.
UC Medical College sets conflict-of-interest guidelines
Business Courier of Cincinnati 2008 Feb 18
http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/02/18/daily46.html

Full text:

The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine has new guidelines for avoiding conflicts of interest in research, education and patient care.

The policies are designed, in particular, to help the school navigate its relationships with drug companies.

“We have to have an environment where the physicians are functioning free of the influence of the pharmaceutical industry in their patient care and prescribing, and anything short of that really doesn’t work,” said Dr. David Stern, dean of UC’s College of Medicine.

The policy, which takes effect May 15, prohibits UC personnel from accepting from industry representatives any gift or compensation unless the payment is for legitimate services.

Among the items that count as gifts are food, beverages, pharmaceutical or device samples and travel-related expenses. Pharmaceutical samples provided for indigent care, however, are acceptable.

The new policy, formed after the university convened a group of faculty and administrators for the purpose, also prohibits industry representatives, other than service personnel, from being on campus except for specific appointments.

“There is a concern that the pharmaceutical industry has an undue influence on prescribing patterns of practicing physicians and that they cultivate this relationship early on – as early as medical school,” Dr. Andrew Filak, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Medicine, said in a UC press release.

UC’s new policy also “reiterates and clarifies the College’s guidelines for the conduct and reporting of industry-sponsored research,” according to the release. UC research support from industry increased by 40 percent in 2007.

In late 2005 controversy arose following reports that a UC surgeon failed in a published paper to disclose financial ties to AtriCure Inc. (NASDAQ: ATRC), the West Chester-based maker of heart-surgery equipment he and other researchers evaluated in a study.

The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery said it would issue corrections revealing the links, and for “future violations” of the kind, it will also institute tougher penalties, including temporarily banning authors and their institutions from publishing in the journal.

A paper published in September with UC surgeon Dr. Randall Wolf as lead author did not make note of stock options and consulting arrangements on the part of Wolf and co-authors.