Pritchard M S
Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo 49008-3899, USA.
Acad Med. 1996 Dec;71(12):1305-13. doi: 10.1097/00001888-199612000-00012.
Growing university-industry ties, particularly in biomedical areas, naturally raise concerns about conflicts of interest. Such conflicts are essentially problems in business and professional ethics. As of the fall of 1995, all institutions seeking funding from either the Public Health Service or the National Science Foundation have been required to maintain and enforce a written policy on conflicts of interest. The PHS and the NSF also require the disclosure of "significant" financial interests that might affect the research. Although the PHS and NSF requirements may prove helpful, they are not sufficient for monitoring the full range of serious conflicts of interest that can arise in university-industry relations. The PHS and the NSF are basically concerned with potential bias in the design, conduct, and reporting of research. Their disclosure requirements are restricted to financial considerations of $10,000 or more. However, bias in research can result from conflicts of interest when much less is at stake financially. Furthermore, it can arise at both individual and institutional levels. This article attempts to provide a conceptual and normative analysis of conflicts of interest that better enables us to understand the subtleties that can be involved. This article is one of three in this issue of Academic Medicine that deal with issues of conflict of interest in university-industry research relationships. These articles are discussed in an overview that precedes them.
大学与产业界日益紧密的联系，尤其是在生物医学领域，自然而然地引发了人们对利益冲突的担忧。此类冲突本质上属于商业和职业道德方面的问题。截至1995年秋季，所有寻求公共卫生服务部或国家科学基金会资助的机构都必须制定并执行一项关于利益冲突的书面政策。公共卫生服务部和国家科学基金会还要求披露可能影响研究的“重大”财务利益。尽管公共卫生服务部和国家科学基金会的要求可能会有所帮助，但对于监测大学与产业界关系中可能出现的各种严重利益冲突而言，这些要求并不充分。公共卫生服务部和国家科学基金会主要关注研究设计、实施和报告过程中的潜在偏差。它们的披露要求仅限于金额在10,000美元及以上的财务考量。然而，当涉及的财务利益少得多时，研究中的偏差也可能由利益冲突导致。此外，偏差可能在个人和机构层面都出现。本文试图对利益冲突进行概念性和规范性分析，以便更好地帮助我们理解其中可能涉及的微妙之处。本文是本期《学术医学》中探讨大学与产业界研究关系中利益冲突问题的三篇文章之一。在这些文章之前有一篇综述对它们进行了讨论。
