Miles: U of M conflict-of-interest rules won’t stop next Grassley letter

Dr. Steven Miles

A University of Minnesota bioethics expert says new conflict-of-interest rules now under review won’t be enough to prevent another embarrassment of riches like the $1.2 million a med school prof earned from Medtronic. The “U” only learned of Dr. David Polly’s moonlighting in July via a scathing, 142-page letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been investigating such conflicts at universities nationwide.

Grassley’s revelations about Polly’s extracurricular activities prompted an effort to overhaul U of M conflict-of-interest policies for faculty, administrators and students (see pdf of draft rules).

But Dr. Steven Miles, another U of M med school faculty member whose specialties include bioethics, writes today that the draft “is an incomplete and flawed document that will do little to regulate the kinds of misconduct and concerns that have brought this University and many other United States universities before Congressional inquiries or harsh media scrutiny.”