Clinic to reveal docs and researchers financial ties

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Cleveland Clinic to reveal doctors' and researchers' financial ties

By Bruce Japsen | Tribune reporter December 11, 2008

A top academic medical center in Cleveland is leading the way in

disclosing on the Web its physicians' ties to the drug and

medical-device industries.

Last week, the Cleveland Clinic made what is believed to be the

boldest move by a U.S. teaching hospital by agreeing to disclose its

physicians' and researchers' financial relationships on its Web site.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and its affiliated

health system quickly followed suit and said it would make a similar move.

Cleveland's prestigious health facility will include the name of each

doctor and scientist and lists of companies " with which they have

collaborations, further identifying whether they have equity, the

right to royalties, a fiduciary position or a consulting relationship

that pays $5,000 or more per year, " according to its Web site,

clevelandclinic.org

The moves come as pressure grows for doctors and hospitals to be more

transparent about potential conflicts of interest with the

pharmaceutical and medical-device industries. Gifts and other payments

to doctors are under fire because critics say it can lead to

medical-care providers' choosing an expensive drug or device over

something cheaper that may work just as well.

In addition to potentially contributing to higher health-care costs,

industry gift-giving can compromise a doctor's judgment and lead to

poor patient care, critics say.

Academic medical centers in particular are under fire to be more

transparent because they conduct medical research, train tomorrow's

physicians and often are viewed as opinion leaders to whom doctors at

community hospitals and elsewhere look for guidance.

Of the Chicago area's five academic medical centers, the University of

Chicago Medical Center confirmed it was moving toward disclosure

similar to Cleveland Clinic's.

" The Cleveland Clinic decision is a good one, " said Dr. Madara,

the center's chief executive. " We are in the process of rolling out a

very extensive, rigorous, and detailed [conflict of interest] policy,

and our clinical faculty already are required to centrally report all

corporate relationships and disclose any potential conflicts of

interest to patients as well as in publications or presentations. "

At Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, executives said they

do not have plans to publicly disclose conflicts of interest but are

not ruling it out.

" I can see that as being the wave of the future, " said Pekar,

associate vice president for corporate compliance and internal audit.

University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Northwestern

Memorial Hospital and Rush University Medical Center said they had no

plans to publicly disclose their physicians' industry ties.

Northwestern and Rush, however, said their executives and doctors are

working on ways to be more transparent to patients, but provided no

specifics.

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