By Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, FACP
2008-07-01
Dr. Kaushansky is Helen M. Ranney Professor and Chair of the
Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr.
Kaushansky is President of ASH.
On May 22, 2008, I presented oral testimony to the Institute of
Medicine (IOM) on conflicts of interest between medical societies and
the pharmaceutical industry and the policies that ASH has put in place
to safeguard against introducing bias into our meetings, publications,
and positions. ASH has developed policies that preserve the scientific
integrity of the discipline while productively interacting with
industry.
The Society's policies concerning conflict of interest have evolved
over time. ASH uses disclosure and peer review to identify conflicts
and then manages them. For example, at this year's annual meeting,
individuals invited to speak will be prohibited from also speaking at a
corporate symposium. This decision was made to prevent the appearance
of conflict that could result from having a speaker present at both a
corporate-sponsored symposium and an ASH educational session. And, the
Society now requires every committee chair to appoint a
conflict-of-interest compliance officer.
From time to time, the target audience requires special treatment.
No corporate contributions have been sought or obtained for funding of
the Clinical Research Training Institute, but because of their
knowledge of the drug development process, speakers who work for a
pharmaceutical company may be included as faculty at the week-long
initiation meeting. Another special circumstance is the development of
clinical guidelines. Individuals with recent, relevant financial
conflicts are prohibited from serving as a member of a clinical
guideline writing committee.
ASH agrees with the AAMC that conflicts of interest extend to all
phases of biomedical research. Thus, at the Clinical Research Training
Institute, faculty discuss how, in preclinical research, financial
conflicts can lead to bias. This includes clinical or translational
research that may become a component of an IND submission or lead to
research involving humans.
For more information, read the written testimony submitted to the IOM.
One important note to mention is that ASH is developing a centralized,
Web-based conflict-of-interest registry that will be fully online no
later than 2010.
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