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Content and strength of conflict of interest policies at Scandinavian Medical Schools: a cross sectional study

Fabbri, Alice ; Mulinari, Shai LU ; Johansson, Martin LU ; Ghaur, Weda ; Khalil, Abdullah Muhammad and Lundh, Andreas (2022) In BMC Medical Education 22.
Abstract
Background
Concerns around staffs’ and students’ interactions with commercial entities, for example drug companies, have led several North American medical schools to implement conflict of interest (COI) policies. However, little is known about COI policies at European medical schools. We analysed the content and strength of COI policies at Scandinavian medical schools.

Methods
We searched the websites of medical schools in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and emailed the Deans for additional information. Using comparable methodology to previous studies, the strength of the COI policies was rated on a scale from 0 to 2 across 11 items (higher score more restrictive); we also assessed the presence of oversight mechanisms and... (More)
Background
Concerns around staffs’ and students’ interactions with commercial entities, for example drug companies, have led several North American medical schools to implement conflict of interest (COI) policies. However, little is known about COI policies at European medical schools. We analysed the content and strength of COI policies at Scandinavian medical schools.

Methods
We searched the websites of medical schools in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and emailed the Deans for additional information. Using comparable methodology to previous studies, the strength of the COI policies was rated on a scale from 0 to 2 across 11 items (higher score more restrictive); we also assessed the presence of oversight mechanisms and sanctions.

Results
We identified 77 unique policies for 15 medical schools (range 2–8 per school). Most of the policies (n = 72; 94%) were University wide and only five (6%) were specific for the medical schools. For six of eleven items one or more schools had a restrictive policy (score of two). None of the schools had a restrictive policy for the five additional items (speaking relationships, sales representatives, on-site education activities, medical school curriculum, and drug samples). Honoraria was the item with the highest score, with eight of the 15 schools having a score of two. Thirteen of the 15 schools had policies that identified a party responsible for policy oversight and mentioned sanctions for non-compliance.

Conclusion
Our study provides the first evaluation of all Scandinavian medical schools’ COI policies. We found that the content of COI policies varies widely and still has shortcomings. We encourage Scandinavian medical schools to develop more stringent COI policies to regulate industry interactions with both faculty and students. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
BMC Medical Education
volume
22
article number
812
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • pmid:36435782
  • scopus:85142527783
ISSN
1472-6920
DOI
10.1186/s12909-022-03881-y
project
Following the money: cross-national study of pharmaceutical industry payments to medical associations and patient organisations
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
488ae00b-6be4-44d6-92df-1b6f7f85c790
date added to LUP
2022-11-03 12:57:05
date last changed
2024-01-12 14:25:07
@article{488ae00b-6be4-44d6-92df-1b6f7f85c790,
  abstract     = {{Background<br/>Concerns around staffs’ and students’ interactions with commercial entities, for example drug companies, have led several North American medical schools to implement conflict of interest (COI) policies. However, little is known about COI policies at European medical schools. We analysed the content and strength of COI policies at Scandinavian medical schools.<br/><br/>Methods<br/>We searched the websites of medical schools in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and emailed the Deans for additional information. Using comparable methodology to previous studies, the strength of the COI policies was rated on a scale from 0 to 2 across 11 items (higher score more restrictive); we also assessed the presence of oversight mechanisms and sanctions.<br/><br/>Results<br/>We identified 77 unique policies for 15 medical schools (range 2–8 per school). Most of the policies (n = 72; 94%) were University wide and only five (6%) were specific for the medical schools. For six of eleven items one or more schools had a restrictive policy (score of two). None of the schools had a restrictive policy for the five additional items (speaking relationships, sales representatives, on-site education activities, medical school curriculum, and drug samples). Honoraria was the item with the highest score, with eight of the 15 schools having a score of two. Thirteen of the 15 schools had policies that identified a party responsible for policy oversight and mentioned sanctions for non-compliance.<br/><br/>Conclusion<br/>Our study provides the first evaluation of all Scandinavian medical schools’ COI policies. We found that the content of COI policies varies widely and still has shortcomings. We encourage Scandinavian medical schools to develop more stringent COI policies to regulate industry interactions with both faculty and students.}},
  author       = {{Fabbri, Alice and Mulinari, Shai and Johansson, Martin and Ghaur, Weda and Khalil, Abdullah Muhammad and Lundh, Andreas}},
  issn         = {{1472-6920}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{BMC Medical Education}},
  title        = {{Content and strength of conflict of interest policies at Scandinavian Medical Schools: a cross sectional study}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/129638677/s12909_022_03881_y.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/s12909-022-03881-y}},
  volume       = {{22}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}