CHICAGO
The American Medical Association is seeking an investigation of claims that editors of its leading medical journal threatened a whistleblower who pointed out a researcher’s conflict of interest.
Editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association deny threatening a professor who raised concerns about a study author’s financial ties to industry ties that were not disclosed when JAMA published the study last year. JAMA, like most leading medical journals, has a policy of noting a scientist’s financial ties to companies whose drugs they are researching.
According to the Wall Street Journal, JAMA editors threatened to ban the professor from their journal and ruin his medical school’s reputation if he didn’t stop talking to reporters.
The editors deny that. But the flap prompted them to spell out what amounts to a gag order on anyone who alerts the medical journal about suspicions that a researcher has undisclosed industry ties. The journal editors argue that any suspicions should be kept secret until JAMA can complete its own probe. That is an existing policy, JAMA’s editor-in-chief, Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, told The Associated Press on Monday.
AMA journals are independent and the medical association doesn’t interfere with what they publish. But AMA said Friday it has asked an independent oversight committee to investigate how JAMA editors handled the issue.
“As owner and publisher of JAMA, we take these concerns very seriously,” AMA board chairman Dr. Joseph Heyman said in a written statement.
