Abstract
Background: Pharmaceutical industry financial support of physicians, physician practices, and academic departments involved in multicenter industry-sponsored clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents is a relatively new and infrequently acknowledged source of potential physician conflict of interest. Detailed disclosure of these relationships to study participants is not uniformly a part of informed consent and documentation practices. Objective: To understand attitudes of patients with multiple sclerosis concerning disclosure of potential physician-industry conflicts of interest created by clinical trials and how such disclosures may influence study participation Methods: An anonymous online instrument was developed. Results: 597 people with multiple sclerosis participated in the study. The study found that detailed disclosure of conflicts of interest is important to potential participants in industry-sponsored clinical trials for multiple sclerosis therapies and that the presence of these conflicts of interest may influence patients' decisions to participate in these studies. Conclusions: Findings from this study support a call for uniform guidelines regarding disclosure of physician-industry relationships to prospective research participants for industry-sponsored clinical trials.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1593-1599 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Multiple Sclerosis |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2015 |
Keywords
- Multiple sclerosis
- clinical trials
- conflict of interest
- industry-sponsored clinical trials
- professional conduct and ethics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neurology
- Clinical Neurology