14. Conflict of Interest

Abstract

　Conflict of interest is defined as “a set of circumstances in which professional motives, judgments, and actions regarding a primary interest may be unduly influenced by a secondary interest” . Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician’s Charter in 2002 includes “the responsibility to maintain trust by managing conflicts of interest” . In this paper we describe practical examples of the education about conflicts of interest in medical schools through the reading of pharmaceutical companies’ product information brochures, and of a lecture on financial conflicts of interest between pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals in a teaching hospital.