Recent news
September 2011
HHS revises rules for financial conflicts of interest in research
September 2, 2011 -- The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has unveiled new rules to increase transparency and reduce financial conflicts of interest for federally funded researchers. Staff from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) worked with others in HHS to revise the 1995 regulations to update and enhance the objectivity and integrity of the research process.
“The medical research conducted and funded by the federal government has long been the gold standard of scientific investigation,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Our financial conflict of interest rules must keep up with the times if we are to maintain our leadership role in the global scientific community.”
More than 40,000 federally funded researchers will be affected by these new rules, which will require them to report anything over $5,000 in income from companies that could have a financial interest in their research. Institutions employing these researchers will then be responsible for making the data available to the public.
NIH Director Francis Collins said this update to the rules will act as a safety net to ensure federally funded researchers can continue to work with the private sector.
“We depend critically on those [relationships] for advances in biomedical research, but we do want to make sure … that the highest standards to transparency and integrity are maintained,” said Collins.
In related news, NIH recently released best practices for researchers conducting mixed methods research that involves combining both qualitative and quantitative research. These new recommendations will help provide guidance to scientists working in the growing field of mixed method research.
- Read the full story in the Washington Post here
- Read the NIH press release on the new conflict of interest rules here
- Read the NIH press release on the best practices for mixed method research here
