BLOGSCAN - Brody on Institutional Conflicts of Interest

On the Hooked: Ethics, Medicine and Pharma blog, Dr Howard Brody offered some interesting thoughts about institutional conflicts of interest, a topic recently in the news because of a JAMA article that showed few medical schools seem to have clear policies about such conflicts. Dr Brody noted the tremendous pressure on medical schools to bring in external funds, which certainly make it hard for the schools' leadership to deal with ICOIs. (On the other hand, I again wonder why medical schools and academic medical centers are always under pressure to bring in external funds, while the rest of the university seems to mainly get by on tuition, alumni contributions, and endowment income?) Thus, he wonders if any attempt to control ICOIs would work unless some body external to the schools could do the enforcement.