Jan 23, 2014 – Revealing Relationships

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ANCHOR LEAD: WILL INDUSTRY/ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS IMPERIL TRUST? ELIZABETH TRACEY
REPORTS

Industry often engages academic institutions, Johns Hopkins among them, to study their drugs, products or devices, and this is an important source of funding. Ben Park, a cancer researcher at Hopkins, says he opts for full disclosure so patients feel they’ve been fully informed.

PARK: I always tell patients when I recommend their diagnostic tests, I say just as full disclosure I want to tell you that I am now doing research with this company under a contractual agreement, because I really believe in them but at the same time when I tell you that I think this is a great test you have to know that. Another company that I have a relationship with I didn’t think there was great utility to the test. I can’t say that for sure because a clinical test hasn’t been done yet, so part of what we’ve done now is actually partner with this company to see in a really rigorous clinical study, does this test actually lead to a difference in outcome? :33

Park believes such joint projects between industry and academia help assure patients that independent evaluation has been undertaken when a recommendation is made. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.