Professional Associations and Conflict of Interest

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There has been much discussion and public debate lately about the relationship between medical institutions (academic medical centers, professional societies, patient advocacy groups, medical journals) and pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies. Although it is clearly acknowledged that collaboration among these groups promotes new health care discoveries and developments, financial ties between medical institutions and industry present a risk for conflict of interest which may influence professional judgment and affect the integrity of research programs, the objectivity of professional education, the quality of patient care, and most importantly, the public's trust.¹

The topic of conflict of interest has great relevance to AAHFN as a professional association, and to Heart & Lung as a professional medical journal. As a professional association, AAHFN has collaborated with industry partners on a variety of projects—continuing education, exhibit sponsorship, patient education products, and public awareness campaigns. Collaboration such as this has tremendously benefitted our members and indeed, has helped us as a young organization to develop and thrive in the health care environment. Throughout each of these projects, we at AAHFN maintained ownership of content, evaluated any disclosed conflicts of interest, and strived to present unbiased, evidence-based information. And we will continue to do this.

Likewise, Elsevier, the publisher of Heart & Lung, has very clear conflict of interest guidelines for authors.² All journal submissions must include disclosure of relationships that could be viewed as a potential conflict of interest. The journal may use this information for editorial decisions, may publish relevant disclosures, and/or may choose to not publish a paper due to a declared conflict.

I think that these actions, to date, have been successful in fostering collaboration while maintaining objectivity in presentations, products, and manuscripts. However, we are entering a new era of intense scrutiny regarding professional associations' ties to industry and we at AAHFN must understand this and respond to it so that our programs are not compromised and our duty to patient well-being is maintained.

Recommendations have been published for professional associations to consider when controlling conflicts of interest.³ Some are quite rigorous and may indeed require organizations to transform their standard operations. However, a key point made in these recommendations is that resolving issues of conflict of interest does not necessarily require avoiding all relationships.

The AAHFN leadership is actively reviewing this important issue and updating our policies to reflect this. I urge all AAHFN members to become familiar with this topic, read the attached references, and dialogue with us as to how best to address this ongoing challenge.

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Sue Wingate RN, PhD, CRNP

President, AAHFN

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References 

1. Institute of Medicine (Conflict of interest in medical research, education, and practice). http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/65/993/COI%20report%20brief%20for%20web.pdfAccessed May 31, 2009.
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2. http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/conflictsofinterest. Accessed May 31, 2009.
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3. Rothman DJ, McDonald WJ, Berkowitz CD, et al. Professional medical associations and their relationships with industry: A proposal for controlling conflict of interest. J Am Med Assoc. 2009;301(13):1367–1372
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