EM Cases policy on conflict of interest

February 2017

Purpose

Emergency Medicine Cases (EM Cases) is committed to creating and disseminating content free from conflict, potential conflict, or perceived conflict. As a free online medical education resource, EM Cases views providing content that is objective and evidence-based as integral to the trust and confidence of our audience and our mission to advance the discipline of emergency medicine through knowledge dissemination.

Application

This policy on conflict of interest applies to all persons involved in the development and delivery of material appearing on or pertaining to EM Cases and its educational resources [1]. 

Policy Statement

We require all persons to declare any interests that may conflict or perceive to conflict with their work with EM Cases.

Conflicts of interest are categorized as:

a) Financial interests

A financial interest is considered to exist when a person receives a benefit that can be assigned a monetary value (fees, honorariums, value in-kind) from actions or decisions made in their official capacity.

b) Non-financial interests

A non-financial interest is considered to exist when a person receives a benefit that cannot be assigned a monetary value, however he or she has some form of personal or professional benefit that could reasonably be seen as influencing his or her decisions, judgments or actions.

c) Interests of a relative

An interest of a relative is considered to exist if a related party (spouse, partner, or other close family member) has the financial or non-financial interest as outlined above.

Fundamentally, EM Cases is committed to transparency of interests that might be seen as a conflict in relation to persons contributing to the development and delivery of materials for EM Cases and its products.

In many cases disclosure will be sufficient, but in some cases interests may be prohibitively conflicting in so far as the person involved would be rejected as a contributor to EM Cases on the topic in question.

EM Cases requests that all persons be clear and specific about the activities, relationships, and views they are declaring and how these relate to the topic in question. There should be clear consideration of anything that may bias or perceive to bias their opinion and therefore exclude a contribution to EM Cases on the applicable topic. Potential contributors should consider what conflicts of interest users would want to know about, bearing in mind the educational nature of EM Cases.

Declarations of interests are required for the period of 36 months prior to the declaration, and those known to exist in the 12 months following the declaration. In the case of dispute, the decision of the advisory board will be final.

All persons contributing to EM Cases will be asked to declare their interests prior to making their contribution and declarations of interests will be posted alongside the material to which it relates.

 

Acknowledgment

This policy and the declaration form to support it were adapted from those of the British Medical Journal

The philosophy we have followed was inspired in large part by both the BMJ and American Family Physician Journal

[1] EM Cases educational resources include: podcasts, blogs, eBooks, videos and courses.