Topics and Expertise: conflict of interest (COI)

How well do states’ policies address possible conflicts of interest of committee members who decide which drugs get Medicaid reimbursement? The question looms especially large as impending federal health care reform increases the number of patients covered by the state-run drug formularies.

Systematic reviews seek to answer key questions about the relative effectiveness and safety of medical interventions by selecting, combining, and critically evaluating the research in published medical literature.

New research support awarded to the UCSF School of Pharmacy by the National Institutes of Health during the 2011 fiscal year included these on-going projects by faculty in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy:

UCSF School of Pharmacy researcher Lisa Bero, PhD, served with UCSF School of Medicine colleagues Bernard Lo, MD, and Deborah Grady, MD, MPH, on an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that in spring 2009 published its findings on conflict of interest in medical research, education, and practice.

Research by UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Lisa Bero, PhD, and UCSF colleagues Kristen Rising, MD, and Peter Bacchetti, PhD, have found that the information that is readily available to health professionals in the scientific literature on clinical drug trials is incomplete and potentially...