Conflicts of Interest: When Should We Pay Attention

We have previously written about financial conflicts of interest and whether physicians can disseminate impartial scientific information if they have a conflict of interest, or if the conflict of interest negates anything the physician (or other medical professional) says. With the introduction of Open Payments and other copy-cat systems around the world, this idea continues to get more dangerous as days go on. In February 2018, the Baltimore Sun published an article by a family physician who drew pause at the fact that the new blood pressure guidelines published by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association were authored by a handful of physicians who had financial relationships with corporations that were not disclosed in the publication. He noted that the financial relationships the author-physicians held with the for-profit companies made him doubt the new guideline, as it recommends broader diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, which he believes will benefit the corporations. He cited several of the authors and their links to companies that may stand to profit from increased prescribing of medications. However, as he also notes, the guideline was not written just by those physicians with a “conflict of interest,” as it was “developed over a 3-year period by a multidisciplinary team, including 2 lay participants, all of whom had no relationships with industry involving diagnosis or treatment of hypertension.” Milton Packer, MD, mor...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs