Government to Require Greater Doctor Payment Transparency

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February 4, 2013

Last week, the federal government announced it would require drug and medical device makers to publicly disclose their payments to doctors and hospitals. This is a promising step towards greater transparency in the healthcare industry and at the Food and Drug Administration. The Project On Government Oversight has previously called for similar reforms, which would clarify possible conflicts of interest in the approval process for major drugs and medical devices.

In their story about the new rule, Digital Journal quoted POGO Staff Scientist Ned Feder about the importance of strong conflict-of-interest disclosure rules for federal advisory committees.

In areas of medicine that are popular these days, I think it's hard to find enough skilled reviewers without possible conflicts of interest and this means that a good committee may have a few such members with possible conflicts.

The solution, I think, is not to insist on limiting committees to members without conflicts. Simply disclose the financial arrangements of all committee members.

Read more about the new rule at Digital Journal.

Topics: Public Health and Science

Related Content: Ethics, Federal Advisory Committees, Medical Devices, Open Government, Public Health, Science Policy

Authors: Andre Francisco

Project On Government Oversight (POGO)

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