title: Institutional Oversight of Faculty-Industry Consulting Relationships in U.S. Medical Schools: A Delphi Study.
abstract: The conflicts of interest that may arise in relationships between academic researchers and industry continue to prompt controversy. The bulk of attention has focused on financial aspects of these relationships, but conflicts may also arise in the legal obligations that faculty acquire through consulting contracts. However, oversight of faculty members' consulting agreements is far less vigorous than for financial conflicts, creating the potential for faculty to knowingly or unwittingly contract away important rights and freedoms. Increased regulation could prevent this, but it is unclear what forms of oversight universities view as feasible and effective. In this article, we report on a Delphi study to evaluate several approaches for oversight of consulting agreements by medical schools. The panel was comprised of 11 senior administrators with responsibility for oversight of faculty consulting relationships. We found broad agreement among panelists regarding the importance of institutional oversight to protect universities' interests. There was strong support for two specific approaches: providing educational resources to faculty and submitting consulting agreements for institutional review. Notwithstanding the complexities of asserting authority to regulate private consulting agreements between faculty members and companies, medical school administrators reached consensus that several approaches to improving institutional oversight are feasible and useful.
authors.affiliation: Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University. She received an MPH from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and a Ph.D. in Health Policy (ethics concentration) from Harvard University's Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy in Cambridge, MA.
authors.forename: Stephanie R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Morain
authors.affiliation: Vice Chair of Medical Ethics and the Emanuel and Robert Hart Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. He received his medical degree from the University of California at San Francisco and an M.P.H. from UC Berkeley.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Joffe
authors.affiliation: Professor of Medicine and Director of Research at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
authors.forename: Eric G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and a Professor of Health Research and Policy at Stanford School of Medicine. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School in New Haven, CT, a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.Phil. in Comparative Social Research from Oxford University in Oxford, UK. At the time of this research, she was a Professor of Law and Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.
authors.forename: Michelle M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mello
mesh_terms: D016265:Conflict of Interest; D032982:Contracts; D003697:Delphi Technique; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D008297:Male; D012577:Schools, Medical; D014481:United States