Cleveland Clinic will soon disclose all of its doctors' industry ties on its Web site.
The University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Public Health is now planning to adopt a policy of public disclosure in which signs posted in the medical center will state that some of their physicians receive outside compensation from various sources, and that the companies and amounts will be available to patients on a public Web site.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to increase transparency at Duke University, all researchers who have received royalties or equities in excess of $10,000 are required to fully disclose the information publicly on the Duke Clinical Research Institute Web site.
Though other institutions, such as the University of Iowa and the Mayo Clinic, have not gone as far as to air potential conflicts of interest publicly, they instead depend on a Conflict of Interest Review Board to monitor and review each case in which a researcher has a financial relationship with a pharmaceutical company.
However, the University of Iowa plans to move a step further in its monitoring of doctors' ties to the pharmaceutical industry. According to Dr. Michael Cohen, professor of medicine and co-chairman of the Carver College of Medicine Conflict of Interest task force, the university is in the final stages of developing a policy that will "require full disclosure from not only faculty -- on whom it is focused -- but also by staff and trainees, [including] students, residents [and] postdoctoral fellows."
At the Mayo Clinic, in addition to its Conflict of Interest Review Board, the clinic provides a written statement in the patient information materials that encourages each patient to ask his or her physicians about industry relationships or to call the clinic's Conflict of Interest office, ensuring patients that all relationships would be disclosed if they so much as inquire.
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