Model Conflicts of Interest in Medicine Act (MCIMA)

Abstract

In complex professions competing interests are inevitable. Though not all conflicts of interest are harmful, conflicts pose risk of harm when they threaten to compromise a person’s professional duty or judgment. Health care providers experience conflicts of interest throughout their professional lives. Financial, professional, or ethical interests may compete - consciously or unconsciously - with a health care provider’s interests in the uniquely important societal interests in patient care and unbiased research. Recent years have seen growing concern about the dangers posed by conflicts of interest in medicine. Academic and research institutions often enact internal policies to regulate conflicts of interest. However, there is considerable variation among institutions’ policies, and most health care providers outside of such institutions are not subject to any conflict of interest regulations. The Model Conflicts of Interest in Medicine Act creates a uniform policy in the form of a State law, which may stand alone, or upon which an institution may build.