Patient autonomy in healthcare decisions and physician conflicts of interest are just two areas of ethical concerns that arise frequently in rheumatology. Dr. Kelly Weselman discusses ethical dilemmas and how to address them.
Conflicts of Interest in Guideline Development: What to Do When Everyone Has a Conflict
Avoiding real and apparent conflicts of interest is a fundamental principle of guideline development, but what should we do when every thought leader is conflicted? An example of this conundrum in rheumatology has been the ACR’s ongoing effort to establish guidelines for the management of lupus nephritis, which has been stymied by the fact that…
Spotlight on Ethics & Conflicts of Interest: A Conversation with Karen Onel, MD, New Chair of the ACR’s Ethics Committee
Karen Onel, MD, new chair of ACR’s Committee on Ethics & Conflict of Interest, brings a longstanding interest in issues related to ethics and consent.
ACR Survey Seeks to Better Define Conflicts of Interest
Recognizing that situations involving ties with the pharmaceutical industry and conflicts of interest are often not black and white, the ACR’s Committee on Ethics and Conflict of Interest has collected feedback on four ethically challenging scenarios to gauge how rheumatology providers think about them. The survey generated responses that were often mixed, showing that when…
Ethics Forum: Beware Your Intellectual Conflicts of Interest
A senior rheumatologist with extensive experience in the management of systemic lupus erythematosus is asked to help draft clinical guidelines for the treatment of lupus nephritis. Neither she nor her family members receive grant funding nor does she consult with any pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. She does have strong clinical opinions based on current evidence…
Ethics Forum: Is a Conflict-of-Interest Slide Enough?
We have all been to numerous lectures, grand rounds and other continuing medical education activities where the speaker, prepared and poised at the podium, begins his lecture with a title slide. Soon after, we see the ubiquitous conflicts of interest slide, which lists the invited speaker’s research funding, his consulting activities and his board memberships—all…
Doctors Who Take Pharmaceutical Money Use Twitter to Hype Drugs
(Reuters Health)—Some cancer doctors use Twitter to promote drugs manufactured by companies that pay them, but they almost never disclose their conflicts of interest on the social media platform, a new study shows. “This is a big problem,” says senior author Dr. Vinay Prasad, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. “Doctors…
Industry Ties Common among Nonprofit Patient Advocacy Groups
(Reuters Health)—An examination of more than 100 of the largest U.S. nonprofit organizations created to improve health and fight disease has found that more than 8 in 10 get financial support from companies involved in the drug, biotechnology and medical device industry. In addition, over a third have at least one industry official on their…
No Easy Solution for Lack of Transparency in the Practice of Medicine
Several well-publicized episodes highlight the apparent lack of disclosure of conflicts of interest in medicine, but will disclosure laws fix the problem or add to the confusion?
What You See Is What You Get: Transparency in Industry relationships
Transparency in industry relationships