Why good policies are necessary
A great story in the AMA News about the importance of building clear and practical policies to help manage COI; the story — Most IRB rules don’t ban finder’s fees for clinical trials — focuses on institutional review boards (IRBs) in the US. According to a recent study by Leslie E. Wolf published in IRB: Ethics & Health Research, most IRBs simply don’t have the necessary poicy support to deal with issues like patient recruitment fees. But as Professor Wolf notes,
“If there is a written policy, it suggests there may be more consistency within an institution,” said Wolf, associate law professor at the Georgia State University College of Law. “If it’s written down and you’re coming to the IRB for the first time and asking questions about what’s appropriate, they can say, ‘Oh, wait, we have a policy that answers this question.’ “
P.S. See this detailed analysis of the issue over at the Research Ethics Blog: Most Ethics Boards Permit Docs “Finder’s Fees”