Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17681

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: Journal Article

Campbell EG
Public Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
Arch Intern Med 2010 Apr 26; 170:(8):667
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/170/8/667

Abstract:

An overwhelming body of evidence shows that financial relationships between physicians and drug and device companies are ubiquitous in medicine today.1 These relationships can take the form of consulting payments, research funding, industry support of continuing medical education activities, meals for physicians and their staff, trips to professional meetings, and company-provided gifts and services.2 Historically, physician-industry relationships have been intentionally hidden from the general public, employing institutions, and elected officials. The covert nature of these relationships has fueled the impression that they are inappropriate and has made it impossible for patients and institutions to evaluate what they do not know about.

During the past decade, a legion of biomedical ethicists, medical students, journalists, and elected officials have demanded increased openness in the form of public reporting of financial relationships at the institutional, state, and national level. Individual institutions, medical journals, and several states already publically disclose . . .