What is a conflict of interest?

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What is a Conflict of Interest?

A situation in which an investigator’s primary interests compete with secondary interests;
Those secondary interests may or may appear to influence the investigator’s judgment;
This situation may lead to adverse outcomes.

From Mildred Cho, Stanford University

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What is conflict of interest?

1 INTEREST/DUTY
Research integrity
Patient welfare
Education

2 INTEREST
Financial gain
Recognition

JUDGEMENT
UNDUE INFLUENCE
ADVERSE OUTCOME

Stanford University

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What Do We Know?
Competing interests increasingly challenge these underlying principles

Financial interests
Career interests
Personal interests

Is there evidence to suggest that conflicts of interest are a problem for clinical research?

Answer: Evidence suggests that industry sponsorship and financial ties contribute to biased outcomes.

What’s the evidence?

Suppression of results
Secrecy among researchers
Bypassing the peer review system
Influence over study design and interpretation of data

The Evidence: Studies of financial ties of investigators

Bias toward favorable results

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Conflict of Interest?

"I have never been bought, I cannot be bought. I am an icon, and I have a reputation for honesty and integrity, and let the chips fall where they may. It is true that there are people in my profession who could not receive a million-dollar grant and stay objective. But I do.”

Courtesy “No Free Lunch” website