Payers Increasingly Concerned
About Conflicts of Interest and Bias in Spinal Research
The Back Letter volume 23 #9
September 2008

Major payers are now openly expressing concerns about financial conflict of interest – disclosed undisclosed- in clinical trials on treatment for spine problems.  The CMS has stated that financial disclosures is not mentioned in some of the published articles or is difficult to readily interpret. Nondisclosures suggest that there may be something to hide whether there is not.  Importantly for patients who receive advice and treatment, the editors of Spine stated that in other words financial conflict often skews the results of clinical and basic research towards favoring the drug or device in question.  The authors conclude that unfortunately, it is not clear the disclosure alone will address the problems related to financial conflict of interest among researchers.  Modifying the structure and funding of the research system to allow more early independent research may provide a better solution for these issues.