University of Minnesota task force seeks greater transparency in faculty conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies

A task force that examined conflicts of interest at the University of Minnesota Medical School has recommended that the university expand its disclosure policy regarding relationships between the school's faculty and the drug industry, the AP/Fargo Forum reports.

The task force in an unreleased report suggested the school disclose all financial ties between faculty and the drug industry, ban gifts from medical companies, and establish a Web site that would report all conflicts of interest. The task force also recommended new limits on gifts to its physicians from drugmakers. In addition, the task force recommended that physicians disclose all relationships with pharmaceutical companies before prescribing drugs to patients. The recommendations, which the task force will forward to Dean Deborah Powell, are based on about one year of study.

Task force Co-Chair Leo Furcht said, "We think there's no place in medical education and the delivery of care for gifts to physicians." Drugmakers paid the university and its medical faculty nearly $1.5 million between 2002 and 2004, according to Public Citizen. Earlier this year, the American Medical Student Association gave the medical school a "D" grade for its current conflict-of-interest policies in part because of a guideline that allows some financial relationships with drugmakers without review from a school committee (AP/Fargo Forum, 10/1).