Conflicts of Interest

This chapter defines the term “conflicts of interest,” which encompasses a wide spectrum of behaviors or actions potentially involving personal gain or financial interest. It explains that conflicts of interest are defined as circumstances that create a risk that professional judgments or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest. It also distinguishes between institutional and individual conflicts of interest, noting that the former is usually only of a financial nature, while individual conflicts of interest may also be non-financial. The chapter discusses how several eminent institutions have addressed conflicts of interest, some of whom have issued guidelines containing practical recommendations for handling both real and potential conflicts. It mentions the World Medical Association's statement that addresses the particular situation of a physician who both works in a clinical setting and engages in research, and reiterates the fundamental criterion that the well-being of the patient overrides all other interests.

Understanding the “Conflict of Interest

According to Wikipedia, ‘Çonflict of interest’ is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgement or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest' [1]. It may be broadly described as conditions which may influence one’s judgement in a situation (primary interest) for some other gain (secondary interest), this may be financial or non-financial . It is of importance to understand that having a secondary gain is not wrong but these gains should not be illegal. This pertains to delivery of patient care, teaching and research in the medical profession.

Assessing conflict of interest in organizations

The innumerable cases of opportunistic behavior by directors, managers, and employees, primarily the various forms of corruption, have shown that neglecting conflicts of interest (CoI) situations can have important negative effects on the organizations involved, undermining, in some cases, their survival and development, as well as creating harmful consequences for stakeholders and the wider community. In proposing remedies to deal with CoI scholars underline the importance of assessing it. However, this aspect has been not investigated adequately. Using the literature on CoI and, in particular, the framework proposed by Thompson (2009) for the medical sector, the objective of the paper is to outline the elements required to assess the extent of the risk of CoI in organizations. Our framework considers the following two elements: a) the probability that the secondary interest may interfere, even if only apparently, with the primary interest of the organization; b) the seriousness of the damage and/or moral unacceptability of the mere appearance of improper behavior. The assessment also allows understanding not only what the causes are, that can increase the probability of interference of the secondary interests, but also the factors that feed these interests, suggesting the most suitable remedies. The analysis has several implications for researchers, practitioners, and regulators.

Introduction to Provider Conflicts of Interest in Health Care

This chapter evaluates provider conflicts of interest in healthcare. Healthcare providers and institutions typically balance an array of competing interests, such as economic gain, the desire to favor colleagues, to advance in one's academic or professional career, or the needs of other patients. Conflicts of interest pervade most healthcare systems and pose considerable risks, both systemic and patient-focused, including increasing costs, harming patients, limiting choice, biasing publication decisions, and eroding trust in healthcare providers and institutions. A key element common to most interpretations of conflicts of interest is the provider's exposure to undue influence from a secondary interest. A second key element is that a conflict of interest can occur when there is merely the perception of undue influence by a secondary interest. Perception that a healthcare provider's independence has been compromised leads to reputational risk and undermines the trust of other stakeholders.

A Harvard Physician’s Reports on an 1857 Visit to the Saamaka

In 1857, Harvard professor and anatomist Jeffries Wyman traveled to Suriname to collect specimens for his museum at Harvard (later the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, founded in 1866 and curated by Wyman). Though his main interest concerned amphibians, he had a secondary interest in ethnology and, apparently, a desire to demonstrate current theories of racial “degeneration” among the African-descended population, particularly the “Bush Negroes.” This research note presents a letter he wrote his sister from Suriname, excerpts from his field diary, and sketches he made while visiting the Saamaka and Saa Kiiki Ndyuka. Wyman’s brief account of his visit suggests that Saamakas’ attitudes toward outside visitors (whether scientists, missionaries, or government officials) remained remarkable stable, from the time of the 1762 peace treaty until the Suriname civil war of the 1980s.

"Mad Men" and television aesthetics: Final shots as a tool for textual configuration

Academic studies of Mad Men confirm that television aesthetics awaken a secondary interest among scholars. The present work joins the body of critical literature that defends the importance of style to television programming. In spite of the thrust and value of the new results achieved by television aesthetics, it is enough to look into the existing bibliography about works like Mad Men to arrive at the conclusion that their scope continues to be comparatively residual. In concrete terms, a formal analysis (scale, placing, length, angle, movement, composition, etc.) of the ‘shot unit’ related to this series is proposed. This will examine the 92 units that comprise the final shot of each episode of Mad Men, to yield the quantitative and qualitative elements that help forge the ‘aesthetic of emptiness’ that characterizes the TV show created by Matthew Weiner. The final images of each installment make up a kind of unhurried ritual in which the television form portrays a man on his own, trapped in an oppressive setting and unable to progress dramatically.

Conflict of Interest and the Code of Ethics

Conflict of interest (COI) can be defined as a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest (e.g., a patient’s best interests) will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest (e.g., financial or professional gain for the counselor). Although conscious and intended unethical behavior resulting from a COI, most COIs occur at a subconscious level and are a normal aspect of human psychology and behavior. It can be very difficult for any professional to recognize a COI, and even more difficult for highly ethical people to realize that they may be making unethical choices. As such, COI is a critical professional issue that is largely inevitable and, like countertransference, needs to be managed, ideally with the help of professional supervision and/or a disinterested third party. The National Society of Genetic Counselors offers resources for addressing COI and its Code of Ethics provides a professional ethos and guidelines for helping to guide ethical behavior for the practice and profession of genetic counseling.

Trauma and Theology: Prospects and Limits in Light of the Cross

The discipline of Christian theology is itself formed around the traumatic narrative of Jesus’ crucifixion. Investigating trauma in order to provide useful accompaniment to trauma survivors is, therefore, theology’s starting point, not a secondary interest. Holding the narrative of crucifixion at its center, this chapter asks whether a discipline constructed in response to traumatic rupture is bound to exacerbate systems of retraumatization or has the potential to empower trauma survivors toward recovery. Building upon the scholarship of late 20th and 21st century womanist and feminist theologians and the significant risk of retraumatization, it engages contemporary psychoanalytic trauma theorists to argue that theology's strength with respect to trauma and contribution to the interdisciplinary task of supporting trauma survivors is its potential as a holding space for diverse stories of both traumatic rupture and recovery.

John Dewey’s Reconstructed Conception of Growth

John Dewey’s analysis of the role of emotion in moral reasoning, presented in the later Ethics, led him to conclude that our development of moral reasoning should be less focused on the secondary interest of attention to ourselves or others, and attend to the more complete interests of the welfare and integrity of the social groups in which we participate. In that analysis, Dewey identified the essential role of empathic understanding in moral decisions, referred to by neuroscientists as social intelligence. Dewey’s discussion of the essential role of emotion in these decisions is further supported by research in neuroscience which has established that general intelligence is located in an area of the brain distinct from the area that supports social intelligence, our capacity for empathic experience. These findings suggest that the presence of individuals with developed social intelligence in the groups in which we participate provide increased opportunities for growth.