Conflict of Interest Disclosure in Early Education of Medical Students
- Kirsten E. Austad, BS;
- Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH
- Author Affiliations: Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Ms Austad); and Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Ms Austad and Dr Kesselheim).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- ACADEMIC MEDICAL CENTERS
- BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
- CONFLICT OF INTEREST
- DISCLOSURE
- DRUG INDUSTRY
- FACULTY, MEDICAL
- STUDENTS, MEDICAL
Medical education has embraced the transparency movement by shining the light of disclosure on physician-industry interactions. Many medical journals mandate that authors report potential conflicts of interest and publish detailed financial relationship lists with their articles.1 Likewise, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education requires disclosure of lecturers' conflicts before lectures qualifying for continuing medical education (CME) credits.2
Despite these changes in physician education, disclosure norms have not yet trickled down to the very start of medical education—the preclinical years. Are first- and second-year students justified in expecting conflicts of interest disclosure in their education?
The clinicians and researchers who lead preclinical medical education at US medical schools are usually drawn from affiliated medical centers and therefore are likely to have financial ties to industry.3 In the context of physician education, financial relationships to the subject matter have been shown to induce selective presentation of data or …
