Conflicts of interest disclosure forms and management in critical care clinical practice guidelines
Abstract
Background Trustworthy clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) require identification and careful management of conflicts of interest (COIs) among all participants in the guideline development. Furthermore, COIs are more common than anticipated. However, there are no universally accepted methods to identify and manage COIs.Objective To describe and summarize the current COI disclosure forms and management policies in selected critical care professional societies that develop high-impact CPGs. In addition, we aim to provide suggestions to guideline developers on how to identify and manage different types of COIs.Methods We searched PubMed and MEDLINE for CPGs published between 2013 and 2018 in English language and addressed general critical care topics. We then ranked the CPGs according to the numbers of citations and selected the first five critical care professional societies that sponsored the guidelines. We obtained the most recent COI declaration forms and management policies. Two reviewers abstracted data on different types of COI in each of the disclosure forms and management policies.Results All selected professional critical care societies require that members declare direct financial COIs; four societies inquire specifically about intellectual COIs (involvement in primary research). Three out of five societies require members to disclose indirect institutional financial COIs; however, none inquire about other forms of institutional COI. We developed, by consensus, a streamlined framework to classify and manage different types of COIs.Conclusion The current COI disclosure forms of selected professional societies provide more attention to financial disclosures and COIs and less attention to detecting and managing intellectual COIs, while rarely addressing institutional COIs. We provide some suggestions for guideline developers on the classification and management of different COIs in the context of CPGs.
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Study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were conducted independently and in duplicate.
“conducted study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment (using the Cochrane risk of bias tool 2.0 for RCTs45 and the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies-of Interventions tool for observational studies46) independently and in duplicate.”
From Evidence-based clinical practice guideline for the pharmacologic management of acute dental pain in adolescents, adults, and older adults (2024) · cites this paper as [45]
Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool 2.0 for RCTs and the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies-of Interventions tool for observational studies.
“using the Cochrane risk of bias tool 2.0 for RCTs45 and the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies-of Interventions tool for observational studies46”
From Evidence-based clinical practice guideline for the pharmacologic management of acute dental pain in adolescents, adults, and older adults (2024) · cites this paper as [45]
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- Authors
- Alhazzani, W., Lewis, K., Jaeschke, R., Rochwerg, B., Møller, M. H., Evans, L., Wilson, K. C., Patel, S., Coopersmith, C. M., Cecconi, M., Guyatt, G., & Akl, E. A.
- Affiliations
- St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (CA)
- Copenhagen University Hospital (DK)
- New York University (US)
- Boston University (US)
- American College of Chest Physicians (US)
- Emory University (US)
- Humanitas University (IT)
- McMaster University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Alhazzani, Waleed
- ORCID
- Venue
- Intensive Care Medicine
- Published
- 2018-09-27
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1691-1698
- ISSN
- 0342-4642 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-1238
- OpenAlex
- W2893584036
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 4.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Intensive Care Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Clinical practice guidelines implementation
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Keywords
- conflicts of interest, intensive care, financial conflicts of interest, guideline development, professional associations, disclosure framework
- MeSH terms
- Critical Care, Humans, Conflict of Interest, Practice Guidelines as Topic, Disclosure, Biomedical Research
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