Disclosure UK website gives “illusion of transparency,” says Goldacre

Ben Goldacre, academic lead at the Evidence Based Medicine DataLab at the University of Oxford, who helped The BMJ with the analysis of data from Disclosure UK (www.disclosureuk.org.uk), the new website detailing payments to doctors from the drug industry,1 has criticised the website for its partial attempt at transparency.

“Doctors have an obligation to be open with their patients and colleagues,” he said. “A financial conflict of interest does not necessarily mean somebody is biased, and there are good reasons to work with the industry, but it does introduce risks. That’s why clearly declaring your conflicts matters, so we can all judge …