In Review - News from the 2004 Meeting of the RSNA

Industry ties to research pose ethical questions

Survey of 2003 abstracts links industry support of authors to focus on off-label uses of equipment

By: C.P. Kaiser

One-fifth of the abstracts presented at the 2003 RSNA meeting had at least one author who disclosed ties to industry. Such papers were twice as likely as those without disclosures to discuss an unlabeled use of a commercial product, according to a study from Harvard University.

Of 1549 abstracts published in the 2003 RSNA program book, 97 had one author with a financial tie to a company whose products or services were covered in the report, 77 had two, and 97 had three or more. The most common types of corporate disclosures were authors who were employees, those who received corporate grants, those who were corporate consultants, and those who were shareholders.

"It is not surprising, nor is it necessarily inappropriate, for commercial interests to influence the topics of radiological research," said lead author Dr. Stephen Brown, a radiology instructor at Harvard. "However, studying unapproved uses of a product may not be the best use of research money and may not answer the most important questions about the use of a product."

More than 30% of papers disclosing a corporate relationship discussed the non-FDA-approved use of a commercial product, compared with 15% of papers with no disclosed ties to industry. The difference was significant, Brown said. These data do not, however, prove bias in the selection of research topics, but they do raise questions such as:

- How often and to what degree were financial interests given priority over those of academia and the public when researchers selected radiological topics?

- Are companies that support the presentation of data on non-FDA-approved products doing so for marketing purposes?

Brown advocated a greater dialogue between industry and academia to minimize the possibility that financial self-interest will improperly influence which products are tested and how the tests are conducted.