The vexing problem of guidelines and conflict of interest: a potential solution. Ann Intern Med 2010 Jun 01;152(11):738-41
Date
05/19/2010Pubmed ID
20479011DOI
10.7326/0003-4819-152-11-201006010-00254Scopus ID
2-s2.0-77953466930 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 275 CitationsAbstract
Issues of financial and intellectual conflict of interest in clinical practice guidelines have raised increasing concern. Professional organizations have responded by more rigorous regulation of conflict of interest. Nevertheless, tension remains between the competing goals of optimizing guideline quality by using the experience and insight of experts and ensuring that financial and intellectual conflicts of interest do not influence recommendations. The executive committee of the American College of Chest Physicians' Antithrombotic Guidelines has developed a strategy comprising 3 innovative aspects to address this tension: First, place equal emphasis on intellectual and financial conflicts and provide explicit criteria for both; second, a methodologist without important conflicts of interest should have primary responsibility for each chapter; and third, experts with important financial or intellectual conflicts of interest can collect and interpret evidence, but only panel members without important conflicts can be involved in developing the recommendation for a specific question. These strategies may help to achieve the benefits of expert input without conflicts of interest influencing recommendations.
Author List
Guyatt G, Akl EA, Hirsh J, Kearon C, Crowther M, Gutterman D, Lewis SZ, Nathanson I, Jaeschke R, Schünemann HAuthor
David Gutterman MD Emeritus Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Conflict of InterestConsultants
Disclosure
Documentation
Humans
Practice Guidelines as Topic
