Letters
Competing interests
Any affiliation can lead to bias
BMJ 2008; 337 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a1256 (Published 11 August 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1256- Tammy L Boyce, research fellow, public health1,
- Bob Ward, director, public policy2
- 1King’s Fund, London W1G 0AN
- 2Risk Management Solutions, London EC3R 8NB
- t.boyce{at}kingsfund.org.uk
Lenzer and Brownlee rightly draw attention to the problem of undeclared commercial interests that conflict with the public interest and influence media reporting of medical advances, but there is a danger that their diagnosis and proposed solution ignore the underlying causes.1
Any affiliation, not just a link to a commercial enterprise, can lead to bias, and almost everybody has some sort of affiliation, …
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