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A while ago I stumbled on the report of Kristy McDonald QC, dated 22 February 2022, which had been commissioned by Hon David Clark, then Minister of Commerce, into aspects of the appointment of the default Kiwisaver providers, and specifically around the handling of conflicts of interest involving the then chief executive of the Financial … Continue reading Conflicts of interest

It is widely assumed that scientists should be objective and ignore personal factors in their scientific conduct (Douglas 2014). However, scientists are human beings and are therefore also driven by interests other than the advancement of scientific knowledge – for instance, by the pursuit of honour and status, wealth, the desire to support their students, political commitments, morality and other factors. Sometimes scientists' non-scientific interests seem to be in conflict with responsible conduct of research, and when this is the case there is a conflict of interest. However, some conflicts of interest are unavoidable and some are even harmless; conflicts of interest do not necessarily lead to questionable research practice and are sometimes an intrinsic part of research itself. But some, particularly those involving financial interests, are a serious threat to the responsible conduct of research and should therefore be taken very seriously. In this chapter we discuss what exactly a conflict of interest is, and why, when and how we, as scientists, should actively respond to our conflicts of interest by, for example, disclosing them.

Medical education including professional guidelines ultimately serves the community based public health. Funding is involved in the development of reviews, evidence based practice and clinical practice guidelines that are intended to help translate research findings into grass-root level practice for the citizens of the world. Further, they help us shaping clinical choices and may even be used to evaluate professional or institutional performance. Financial conflicts of interest with or without political color have divided human mindset historically needs elaborate discussions and are not under consideration of this discussion in this space of editorial. The fact that all human beings are biased is welldocumented in the literature of neuro- and cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and clinical epidemiology. In the arena of non-financial competing interests, there is spectrum of personal, social, political, communal, academic, ideological, religious or even unidentified biological factors; they can influence professional judgment. Furthermore, the very nature of academic and editorial work ensures that none of us are immune. Expertise in itself presents a kind of conflict of interest. Like commercial interests, non-financial competing interests can influence professional judgment

Medical education including professional guidelines ultimately serves the community based public health. Funding is involved in the development of reviews, evidence based practice and clinical practice guidelines that are intended to help translate research findings into grass-root level practice for the citizens of the world. Further, they help us shaping clinical choices and may even be used to evaluate professional or institutional performance. Financial conflicts of interest with or without political color have divided human mindset historically needs elaborate discussions and are not under consideration of this discussion in this space of editorial. The fact that all human beings are biased is welldocumented in the literature of neuro- and cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and clinical epidemiology. In the arena of non-financial competing interests, there is spectrum of personal, social, political, communal, academic, ideological, religious or even unidentified biological factors; they can influence professional judgment. Furthermore, the very nature of academic and editorial work ensures that none of us are immune. Expertise in itself presents a kind of conflict of interest. Like commercial interests, non-financial competing interests can influence professional judgment