Abstract
BackgroundAttitudes towards conflict of interest (COI) and COI policy are shaped during medical school and influence both the education of medical students and their future medical practice. Understanding the current attitudes of medical students and medical school teaching faculty may provide insight into what is taught about COI and COI policy within the ‘hidden’ medical curriculum. Differences between medical student and medical school teaching faculty perceptions of COI and COI policy have not been compared in detail. The authors surveyed first year medical students and medical school teaching faculty at one academic medical center.ResultsThe response rate was 98.7% (150/152) for students and 34.2% (69/202) for faculty. Students were less likely than faculty to agree that lecturers should disclose COI to any learners (4.06 vs. 4.31, p = 0.01), but more likely to agree that COI disclosure decreases the presentation of biased material (3.80 vs. 3.21, p < 0.001). Student and faculty responses for all other questions were not different. Many of these responses suggest student and faculty support for stronger COI policy at academic medical centers.ConclusionsStudents and faculty perceptions regarding COI and COI policy are largely similar, but differ in terms of the perceived effectiveness of COI disclosure. This study also suggests that medical students and medical school teaching faculty support for stronger COI policy at academic medical centers.
Highlights
Attitudes towards conflict of interest (COI) and COI policy are shaped during medical school and influence both the education of medical students and their future medical practice
Managing conflicts of interest (COI) and creating effective COI policy is a difficult, yet important, task for academic medical centers as they perform the missions of patient care, biomedical research, and medical education
The first year medical students surveyed in this study may not have yet been exposed to COI within medical training and healthcare, while all faculty surveyed have likely witnessed COI during their medical training, healthcare experience, or continuing medical education courses
Summary
Attitudes towards conflict of interest (COI) and COI policy are shaped during medical school and influence both the education of medical students and their future medical practice. The authors surveyed first year medical students and medical school teaching faculty at one academic medical center. Managing conflicts of interest (COI) and creating effective COI policy is a difficult, yet important, task for academic medical centers as they perform the missions of patient care, biomedical research, and medical education. Authors from Canada and Andresen et al BMC Res Notes (2017) 10:272 strengthened their COI policies over the past 10 years [5]. These efforts have largely been top-down, coming from regulatory bodies, national organizations, and administrators. Some have questioned the need for strengthening these policies, citing a lack of evidence supporting the need for stronger COI policy and the potential harms of restricting relationships with industry [7]
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