Institutional financial conflicts of interest policies at Canadian academic health science centres: a national survey

Open Medicine 2010;4(3):e134 Financial conflicts of interest (fcoi) are of particular concern in the conduct of human subject research, whether they occur at the level of individual investigators or at the level of the institution.1 Institutional fCOI can occur when an institution that hosts the research, or a senior institutional official acting on behalf of the institution, has a financial interest in the study outcome.2,3 Such conflicts can be detrimental to research subjects,4 lead to an inappropriate degree of control over what should be an independent research agenda,5 and have serious implications, even in the absence of research misconducts.6,7 Moreover, undisclosed fCOI undermine the public’s confidence in science. For example, senior National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials were allowed to receive income as consultants to drug companies.6 The concern that this income might inappropriately influence their work resulted in the formation of a national Blue Ribbon committee to examine NIH conflict-of-interest policies.7 The committee’s 2004 report recommended that senior management should not consult with companies whose interests could influence the outcomes of their research6 ultimately led to a moratorium on industry-paid consultancies held by any NIH employee. Despite increased scrutiny of this issue on the part of government,6 the media,8 and the public,9 academic institutions have been slow to develop policies Institutional financial conflicts of interest policies at