Former journal editor had potential conflicts of interest in nine of 10 articles he authored

The former editor of the Journal of Patient Safety, who resigned after a US government lawsuit alleged that he had accepted substantial payments to influence national safety guidelines, also had potential conflicts of interest in nine of 10 articles he authored in his journal, a review published by the new editors has said.

Charles Denham was named in a legal settlement last December between the government and CareFusion, producer of the antiseptic skin formulation ChloraPrep. The government alleged that his company, Health Care Concepts, received $11.6m (£7.4m; €9.4m) in contracts from CareFusion and its legal predecessor Cardinal Health.1

“The United States contends that the compensation for the underlying services in these agreements was not fair market value,” the suit alleged, “and one purpose of these contracts was to conceal kickbacks to Dr Charles Denham.”

Denham was then serving as co-chair of the National Quality Forum’s Safe Practices Committee, whose safety recommendations are …