Stanford School of Medicine is once again helping to set a trend among academic medical centers with steps to ensure integrity and transparency in its relationships with industry. The school has joined a few other centers in the country in making information about the consulting activities of its faculty readily accessible to the public. In late August, the school began posting information about these activities in the online profiles of its faculty members.
"Because perceptions about such interactions can sometimes be misleading, we have come to the conclusion that public disclosure serves the best interests of our faculty, Stanford University and the public we serve," said Philip Pizzo, MD, dean of the medical school.
The school's Web site now lists the companies in which faculty members receive payments of $5,000 or more for consulting activities, such as board memberships, talks and advisory service. The Web site also includes any equity or royalty payments of $5,000 or more in public companies and any equity in privately held firms for which faculty members do consulting work.
The school has long required that faculty report this information annually as part of its process of managing potential conflicts of interest. Now it will be widely available to any member of the public who's interested. For more details, see today's press release.
