Institute of Medicine Calls for Steps to Limit Conflicts of Interest Among Physicians
"The medical profession must take steps to "identify, limit, and manage conflicts of interest," the Institute of Medicine advises in a report issued online.
Among the recommendations:
- Medical institutions should create conflict-of-interest policies that mandate "disclosure and management" of personal and institutional financial ties to industry.
- Investigators should not conduct human trials if they have financial interests in the results.
- Academic medical centers and teaching hospitals should ban faculty from accepting gifts or making presentations managed by industry.
- Physicians should provide free drug samples only to patients without the means to pay for them.
- CME programs should be funded without industry support.
The report concludes: "The public needs to be able to trust that physicians' decisions are not inappropriately influenced by their financial relationships with industry."
The IOM Report Brief summarizes the problem: "...financial ties between medicine and industry may create conflicts of interest. Such conflicts present the risk of undue influence on professional judgments and thereby may jeopardize the integrity of scientific investigations, the objectivity of medical education, the quality of patient care, and the public’s trust in medicine."