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KMID : 1172020060070020029
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Journal of Korean Bioethics Association
2006 Volume.7 No. 2 p.29 ~ p.52
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Ethics of conflict of interest in biomedical research
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Kim Ock-Joo
Choi Eun-Kyung
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Abstract
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Conflict of interest in medicine, defined as a set of conditions in which professional judgment is or can be unduly influenced by personal interest, became an important ethical issue in the late 20th century. Conflict of interest can occur at individual level involving researchers, research assistants, IRB members, journal editors, reviewers, and/or their direct family members as well as at institutional level involving research institution, IRB, sponsors, and/or communities. Financial conflict of interest includes all monetary interest which potentially deviate professional judgement of investigators or IRB members, while nonfinancial conflict of interest may cause also serious problems. The safety of human subjects, scientific integrity, mission of academic institution can be threatened by conflict of interest. It negatively affects designing, conducting, and reporting research results. Researchers, or IRB members compromise the safely of human subjects due to the conflict of interest of the individuals or that of the institution. Since not all conflicts of interest cause problems, the possibility of bias caused by conflict of interest and of harm to subjects are evaluated. USA regulations requires conflict of interest in all research funded by Public Health Service to be disclosed. and managed, reduced or eliminated before and during the research. Medical schools often have conflict of interest committees which assess the significance of interests and manage the conflicts including disclosure, amendment of protocols, limitation of role of the researcher, or resolution of
severance of financial relationship between the conflicting parties. While developed countries manage conflict of interest, Korean society does not discuss seriously ethical issues surrounding conflict of interest in spite of recent Hwang’s scandal. Since biomedical research in Korea aims at developing biotechnology of high economic values, negative effects of potential conflict of interest may arise. This rapidly changing environment calls for public discussion on the conflict of interest issues and development of policies to properly manage conflict of interest. For biomedical researches rely upon public investment of funding and participation of people in research, controlling conflict of interest is not optional, but mandatory to keep public trust in the research.
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KEYWORD
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conflict of interest, biomedical research, research ethics, disclosure, IRB
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