This opinion piece by Dr Margaret McCartney has just been published in the BMJ. It is Open Access and can be read here.
Dr McCartney states that: “Transparency as a means to conquer conflicts of interest is illusory. It makes it all seem fine, because as long as the rules are followed, and declarations are made, then everyone’s behaving ethically and morally, etc. But rather than ridding ourselves of the impacts of conflicts, this just embeds them: there’s no incentive for people to decrease their potential for conflicted interests when they’re told that declarations are the way to deal with it.”
I agree that declarations alone are not the answer. I have always argued that Sunshine legislation can only be the beginning.
I was hoping to find in Dr McCartney’s article some form of way forward in dealing with conflicts of interest.
So far there has been one rapid response by Alan Black [see below]. I agree with his comments.
