title: Ensuring accountability through health professional regulatory bodies: the case of conflict of interest.
abstract: How do self-regulated health professions' regulatory bodies address financial conflict of interest (coi) and ensure accountability to the public? using document analysis, we examined how four ontario regulatory colleges (physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, audiologists/speech-language pathologists) defined coi and the education, guidance and enforcement they provided for coi-related issues. These colleges are upholding the mandates to define, identify and address financial coi by providing regulations or standards and guidelines to their membership; they differed in the amount of educational materials provided to their registrants and in the possible coi scenarios they presented. Although there were few disciplinary hearings pertaining to financial coi, findings for the hearings that did occur were documented and posted on the college public registers (the listing of all registered college members along with all relevant practice information), informing the public of any limitations or restrictions placed on a member as a result of the hearing.
authors.affiliation: Vice President Operations, Lifestyle Hearing Corporation, Guelph, ON.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zelisko
authors.affiliation: Associate Vice President, International Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Director, Nursing Health Services Research Unit, McMaster University Hamilton, ON.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON.
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gamble
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laporte
authors.affiliation: Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
authors.forename: Raisa B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Deber
mesh_terms: D016265:Conflict of Interest; D006281:Health Occupations / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D009864:Ontario; D016134:Organizational Policy; D028743:Professional Misconduct / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012941:Social Responsibility; D012952:Societies / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*