Dr. Susannah Rose's primary project at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics has been to develop an empirical research study aimed at assessing the nature of institutional financial conflicts of interest among patient advocacy groups in the United States. During her first year as a residential Lab Fellow at the Safra Center, Susannah finished a paper that reviews the literature on patient advocacy groups, which describes their significant role in shaping health policy in the U.S. and provides recommendations for helping advocacy groups better manage institutional conflicts of interest. In this paper, she argues that maintaining and enhancing trust and institutional trustworthiness are important targets for policies aimed at managing financial conflicts of interest. This paper services as the background for an empirical research project that Susannah is developing on patient advocacy groups and conflicts of interest, which will be continued during her second year as a non-residential fellow. This study, co-authored with Dr. Steve Joffe at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, will investigate a random selection of advocacy groups in the U.S. about their financial ties to industry and their conflicts of interest policies. Given that this is a multiple-year research project, data collection and analysis will begin in the fall. In addition to her patient advocacy group study, Susannah is also collaborating with Dr. Christopher Robertson (University of Arizona) and Dr. Aaron Kesselheim (Harvard Medical School) on a randomized trial investigating the impact of different forms of conflicts of disclosure on physicians' perceptions of the methodological rigor of drug clinical trials. This study specifically assesses the impact of including disclosures in the abstracts of drug trials, which may point to improved policies aimed at managing conflicts of interest. During the past year, Susannah and her co-authors refined the methodology and developed the data collection tools, including the survey development, and are planning to start data collection this summer.
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