Role of Leaders in Fostering Meaningful Collaborations Between Academic Medical Centers and Industry While Also Managing Individual and Institutional Conflicts of Interest

Abstract

Over at least the past 20 years, putative and real conflicts of interest (COI) at academic medical centers have been featured prominently in the lay press, often with reputational damage to individuals and institutions.1 The heightened focus of concern about alleged financial payments to physicians and academic institutions by pharmaceutical and device companies, coupled with increasing concern by medical students (most notably in the American Medical Student Association scorecard, which gave grades to medical schools ranging from A to F based on how well they performed in avoiding conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical industry) shone a bright light on individual and institutional integrity.