The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) agreed that ongoing monitoring and research regarding financial conflicts of interest (COIs) at the interface of academia, medicine, and industry is critical, according a letter published in JAMA Oncology.
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In the letter, Robert W Carlson, MD, and Joan S. McClure, both affiliated with NCCN, were responding to a report by Mitchell and colleagues published online in August in JAMA Oncology. The researchers assessed the financial COIs among four of the NCCN Guideline Panel members in 2014 as documented in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Open Payments database. They found that more than 85% of NCCN guideline authors had at least one reported FCOI, most of which were general payments, but nearly half also received research payments.
The NCCN takes the integrity of its NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines development process very seriously and has a robust disclosure policy (https://www.nccn.org/about/disclosure.aspx) for panel members, according to Dr Carlson and Ms McClure. They noted that the Open Payments database is known for sometimes being inaccurate, “so direct queries to panel members who might exceed the NCCN financial COI thresholds according to the Open Payments are important in understanding whether a meaningful COI actually exists.”
Applying the NCCN definition of financial COIs, their analysis found that less than 1% of all panel members, of all panels, exceeded the NCCN financial COI thresholds in 2014 based on the CMS Open Payments database once adjudicated for accuracy of the database and for excluded payments.
They also referenced a commentary to Mitchell and colleagues article that noted experts of the type desired by high-quality guideline panels are oftentimes the same quality of experts sought by industry for consultation. “This interaction and sharing of expertise is good for academia, industry, the healthcare industry, and for patients,” wrote Dr Carlson and Ms McClure.
