Is It Possible to Solve the Conflicts Over Conflict of Interest?; Comment on "Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool"

Addressing conflicts of interests when developing and implementing policies to address commercial determinants of health is pivotal to ensure that these policies are free from commercial and other vested interests of unhealthy commodities industry. As a concept, this is well accepted within the tobacco control community, and supported by the existence of an international treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. But in nutrition policy the engagement of the food industry appears to remain controversial, as efforts to create partnerships are still underway. There is a need to undertake evaluation of existing conflict of interest policies to assess their implementation and outcomes, creating best practice models that can be replicated, and understanding how to change norms within governments. Additionally, a review of existing norms, codes of conduct, and ethics to determine their impact on preventing COI would guide future implementation of these measures. Finally, governments, academics, and advocates should consider how existing tools, guidelines or other instruments could help frame the COI discussion to ensure its political feasibility. There needs for a discussion on whether the current approach of separate policies for distinct industries is preferable than a broader conflict of interest policy that would be applicable to a wide range of unhealthy commodities and across governmental sectors.

Characterizing Potential Conflicts of Interest Among UpToDate and DynaMed Content Contributors

BACKGROUND: Financial conflicts of interest among physicians have the potential to negatively impact patient care. Physicians contribute content to two popular, evidence-based websites, UpToDate and DynaMed; while other physicians use these websites to influence their clinical decision making. Each website maintains a conflict-of-interest policy, and contributors are required to self-report a disclosure status. This research investigated the occurrence for potential conflicts of interest among the self-reported statuses of UpToDate and DynaMed content contributors. METHODS: An initial list of contributors for each website was compiled using the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions 2017 Leading Causes of Death. The top 50 causes were used to determine a relevant article with clinical implications from each database. All named authors and editors of those articles comprised our list of investigated contributors. Contributor disclosure status was then compared with public records of financial remuneration as reported in the Open Payments database maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ProPublicas Dollar for Docs website from 2013 to 2018. Descriptive analysis and Fishers exact tests were performed on the data. RESULTS: Of 76 UpToDate contributors, 57.9% reported nothing to disclose but had a record of receiving a financial payment on Open Payments, which was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.0002). Of DynaMeds 42 contributors who reported nothing to disclose, 83.3% had an entry on Open Payments. However, this was not statistically significant. The sum total of industry payments between 2013-2018 made to UpToDate contributors was $68.1 million. The top ten UpToDate contributors who received the most financial remuneration earned approximately $56.1 million (82.4% of all UpToDate renumeration), were all male, and only one had a nothing-to-disclose status. The sum total of compensation reported for the discordant UpToDate contributors between 2013-2018 was approximately $4.81 million (or 7.07% of the total monies reported to UpToDate contributors.) In that same time frame, DynaMed contributors received a sum total of $9.58 million from industry, while the top ten DynaMed contributors earned $8.88 million (or 92.8%) of that. The top ten DynaMed contributors were 80% male and 20% female, and six individuals reported nothing to disclose, yet had an Open Payments entry. The sum total of money reported for all discordant DynaMed contributors between 2013-2018 was approximately $2.79 million (or 29.2% of the total monies reported to DynaMed contributors). CONCLUSIONS: While this research does not ascertain that a conflict of interest or anything untoward, it does provide evidence that there was a significant difference between having an Open Payment entry among those who did versus those who did not disclose a conflict of interest. Websites such as UpToDate and DynaMed should consider implementing a more stringent conflict of interest policy and employ an unbiased team to verify self-reported disclosure statuses among its content contributors. Similarly, physicians who use such informational websites to inform their clinical decision making should look beyond a contributors self-reported disclosure status and verify relevant financial remuneration from the healthcare industry via Open Payments or Dollars for Docs.

Central bank interest policy: conceptual concepts and socio-economic context

The article reveals the goals and mechanisms of the interest rate policy of the central bank. The role of the discount rate in ensuring financial and macroeconomic stability is shown. The Taylor rule is presented and justified in a modified form, by including the money supply parameter in it. The phenomenon of negative interest rates is revealed.

The Slow Death of Capital Protection

Capital protected products are a special type of structured retail products that guarantee a minimum amount of payment at maturity. They were the earliest type of structured products and are very popular with risk averse investors, but nevertheless have become rare in the past years. Using a unique dataset of all structured products issued in Switzerland, one of the biggest markets for such products in the world, we investigate why this has been the case, and argue that it is to a large degree an effect of the zero-interest policy of central banks.

Associative Action

Chapter 6 turns to another form of associative leader engagement. Specifically, Chapter 6 examines the rise of organizations founded by SV150+ CEOs and founders. Special attention is paid to a new organizational form: the corporate social advocacy organization (CSAO), which we define as a political organization, founded directly by corporate elites, that pursues a narrow issue or public interest policy agenda, and seeks to involve the general public in its advocacy work (as members or supporters). The chapter uncovers nineteen groups founded by SV150+ elites, among them several CSAOs. Chapter 6 examines where these groups came from, what they do, and how they connect with other forms of SV150+ political activity.

Factors affecting the interest rate policy of commercial banks

The subject of the flock is conditioned by the need to consider the influence of internal and external factors on the interest rates of banks. The purpose of the study is a comprehensive, reliable study of the main factors influencing the formation of interest rates on the basis of methods of cognition developed in science, as well as obtaining and implementing recommendations of results and conclusions. The choice of the direction of scientific research is related to the need to compile an idea of the features and methods of forming the interest policy of the bank. The research used the method of analysis, synthesis, observation and collection of factual information that allowed studying economic phenomena both in parts (analysis) and in general (synthesis).The article examines the factors influencing the interest rates of commercial banks, which depend primar-ily on the macroeconomic situation in the country.