Conflicts of Interest

In collaboration with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation, IMAP has developed recommendations for managing conflicts of interest between physicians and pharmaceutical companies.

Physicians and medical organizations have many opportunities to compromise their professional responsibilities by pursuing private gain or personal advantage.

Such compromises are especially threatening in the pursuit of personal or organizational interactions with for-profit industries, including pharmaceutical firms, medical equipment manufacturers, and insurance companies.

As stated in the Charter on Medical Professionalism, “physicians have an obligation to recognize, disclose to the general public, and deal with conflicts of interest that arise in the course of their professional duties and activities.”

The goal of the Managing Conflicts of Interest Project is to develop recommendations for managing conflicts of interest and engaging physicians in maintaining public trust. It focuses both on the individual judgments of physicians to reduce conflicts of interest, and also on the authority of state and federal regulations.

On January 25, 2006 JAMA published the working group's recommendations: Health Industry Practices That Create Conflicts of Interest. To see coverage related to the article, click HERE.

This collaborative project reflects the respective missions of the ABIM Foundation – to advance medical professionalism and physician leadership in quality improvement and assessment, and that of IMAP – to promote professional values in medicine.