Managing conflicts of interest in the development of health guidelines
- PMID: 33431547
- PMCID: PMC7773042
- DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.200651
Managing conflicts of interest in the development of health guidelines
Conflict of interest statement
Competing interests: Diane Kelsall was the interim editor-in-chief of CMAJ until October 2019, and is currently editor for CMAJ Open and consulting editor for CMAJ. Gillian Leng is an executive director of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which also has a policy on declaring and managing conflicts of interest, and is the chair of the Guidelines International Network, which provides advice on managing potential conflicts of interest. Brett Thombs, Ainsley Moore and Navindra Persaud are, respectively, chair, vice-chair and a member of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Healthcare, which develops clinical practice guidelines and also has a policy on declaring and managing conflicts of interests. Navindra Persaud reports receiving research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Ontario SPOR Support Unit, and the Canada Research Chairs program, outside of the submitted work. Holger Schünemann is a member of the GRADE working group and was the lead author on the Guidelines International Network principles for disclosure of interests, and is the corresponding author on the manuscript describing the PANELVIEW instrument. Rachel Rodin and Marcello Tonelli report receiving funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to host the Best Brains Exchange referred to in the article. Elie Akl reports contributing to a number of studies on conflicts of interest. G. Michael Allan reports being an author of guidelines, who has received travel support, honoraria for speaking at conferences, and research support. The supports have been from nonprofit sources. Dr. Allan has received no funding from the pharmaceutical industry. Isabelle Ganache reports receiving personal fees from Institut national d’excellence santé et en services sociaux (INESSS), as director of the Bureau – Methodologies and Ethics (which is responsible for the institutional policy on declaring and managing conflicts of interest), during the conduct of the study. Quinn Grundy reports receiving grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and a Connaught New Research Award from the University of Toronto, outside of the submitted work. No other competing interests were declared.
References
-
- Johnson L, Stricker RB. Attorney General forces Infectious Diseases Society of America to redo Lyme guidelines due to flawed development process. J Med Ethics 2009;35:283–8. - PubMed
-
- Lenzer J. French guidelines are withdrawn after court finds potential bias among authors. BMJ 2011;342:d4007. - PubMed
-
- Howlett K. Conflicts of interest didn’t influence new opioid standards: review. Globe and Mail [Toronto] 2017. September 7 Available: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/conflicts-of-interest-didnt-influe... (accessed 2019 Oct. 23).
-
- Dyer O. WHO drops opioid guidelines after criticism of corporate influence. BMJ 2019;365:l4374. - PubMed
-
- Cosgrove L, Bursztajn HJ, Erlich DR, et al. Conflicts of interest and the quality of recommendations in clinical guidelines. J Eval Clin Pract 2013;19:674–81. - PubMed
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources