Study probes academic, industry relationships

A study led by members of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Policy (MGH-IHP) has found that institutional academic-industry relationships — financial relationships companies have with medical schools or teaching hospitals rather than with individual physicians or scientists — are as common and pervasive as individual relationships. The report, the first nationwide look at the extent and impact of these relationships, appears in the Oct. 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Our data show that institutional relationships are as ubiquitous as individual relationships,” says Eric Campbell of the MGH-IHP, the study’s principal investigator. “As with personal interactions, some institutional relationships likely pose conflicts of interest with the overall missions of academic medical centers. This study is a first step toward compiling information that will be crucial for the development of policies regarding these relationships.”

To investigate the extent of institutional academic-industry relationships, the researchers conducted a survey of department chairs — senior members of the academic hierarchy — at 125 U.S. medical schools and the 15 largest independent teaching hospitals, which conduct more research than do some medical schools. At each institution the survey was sent to the chairs of medicine and psychiatry — specialties that often receive industry funding for educational activities — and two randomly selected chairs of other clinical departments. Surveys also were sent to the chairs of microbiology and one randomly selected nonclinical chair.