Attempts to Redefine Conflicts of Interest
Accountability in Research: Policies in Quality Assurance, December 2017
16 Pages Posted: 8 Dec 2017 Last revised: 13 Dec 2017
Date Written: 2017
Abstract
The traditional legal concept of conflict of interest is a practical tool to regulate conduct. In recent years several medical authors have defined conflicts of interest in ways that stray from its original legal meaning. The new definitions cause conceptual confusion and will result in policies that cannot be implemented effectively. We should not follow recent attempts to redefine conflicts of interest because doing so deviates from the legal concept and will lead to deregulation of financial conflicts and overregulation of so-called intellectual conflicts.
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