Medical devices and conflict of interest: Unique issues and an industry code to address them

ABSTRACT

Development of medical devices requires interaction between physicians and industry that is considerably more intimate than that in pharmaceutical development. Progress in procedure-based medicine would be stalled if this collaboration were eliminated. This degree of interaction, however, creates conflicts of interest that must be managed to avoid compromising trust, credibility, and patient care. AdvaMed, a trade association for the medical device industry, has developed a code of ethics to manage many of these conflicts and to guide its members’ interactions with health care professionals. This article reviews the rationale for the AdvaMed code and provides a brief overview of the code itself.