From the Washington Post: Cleveland Clinic to Tighten Its Disclosure Policies. It sounds like all the bad press the clinic received last year over ties its doctors had with companies that make the products and procedures it was testing prompted them to ask lawyers from the Chicago office of McDermott, Will & Emory to review what they're currently doing about potential conflicts of interest. While the final report isn't yet completed, the clinic's "institutional review board, which reviews all research involving patients, is being provided with information on investments made by the clinic. In the past, the review board was unaware that the clinic was investing millions of dollars in companies conducting clinical trials and other research work at the hospital," according to the article.
- Considered one of the top heart centers in the world, the Cleveland Clinic also said the review determined that the "clinic has reached a point of imbalance between innovation efforts and transparency" and that "importantly, actions need to be taken to correct the imbalance," according to Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the clinic.
The review also found fault with the clinic's chief executive, Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, a renowned heart surgeon, saying that his own disclosure practices "contained some shortcomings," according to Ms. Sheil. She added that the review indicated those shortcomings weren't reflective "of a lack of individual integrity."
It'll be interesting to see what else the implement, especially in light of all the confusion the Duke study found various medical centers to be having in developing disclosure policies, as I posted about earlier today. Maybe the Cleveland Clinic can set up something that serves as a template for those who are struggling? We'll see.
