• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SAGES

Reimagining surgical care for a healthier world

  • Home
    • COVID-19 Annoucements
    • Search
    • SAGES Home
    • SAGES Foundation Home
  • About
    • Who is SAGES?
    • SAGES Mission Statement
    • Advocacy
    • Strategic Plan, 2020-2023
    • Committees
      • Request to Join a SAGES Committee
      • SAGES Board of Governors
      • Officers and Representatives of the Society
      • Committee Chairs and Co-Chairs
      • Full Committee Rosters
      • SAGES Past Presidents
    • Donate to the SAGES Foundation
    • Awards
      • George Berci Award
      • Pioneer in Surgical Endoscopy
      • Excellence In Clinical Care
      • International Ambassador
      • IRCAD Visiting Fellowship
      • Social Justice and Health Equity
      • Excellence in Community Surgery
      • Distinguished Service
      • Early Career Researcher
      • Researcher in Training
      • Jeff Ponsky Master Educator
      • Excellence in Medical Leadership
      • Barbara Berci Memorial Award
      • Brandeis Scholarship
      • Advocacy Summit
      • RAFT Annual Meeting Abstract Contest and Awards
  • Meetings
    • NBT Innovation Weekend
    • SAGES Annual Meeting
      • 2023 Scientific Session Call For Abstracts
      • 2023 Emerging Technology Call For Abstracts
    • CME Claim Form
    • Industry
      • Advertising Opportunities
      • Exhibit Opportunities
      • Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Future Meetings
    • Past Meetings
      • SAGES 2022
      • SAGES 2021
    • Related Meetings Calendar
  • Join SAGES!
    • Membership Benefits
    • Membership Applications
      • Active Membership
      • Affiliate Membership
      • Associate Active Membership
      • Candidate Membership
      • International Membership
      • Medical Student Membership
    • Member News
      • Member Spotlight
      • Give the Gift of SAGES Membership
  • Patients
    • Healthy Sooner – Patient Information for Minimally Invasive Surgery
    • Patient Information Brochures
    • Choosing Wisely – An Initiative of the ABIM Foundation
    • All in the Recovery: Colorectal Cancer Alliance
    • Find a SAGES Member
  • Publications
    • SAGES Stories Podcast
    • SAGES Clinical / Practice / Training Guidelines, Statements, and Standards of Practice
    • Patient Information Brochures
    • TAVAC – Technology and Value Assessments
    • Surgical Endoscopy and Other Journal Information
    • SAGES Manuals
    • SCOPE – The SAGES Newsletter
    • COVID-19 Annoucements
    • Troubleshooting Guides
  • Education
    • OpiVoid.org
    • SAGES.TV Video Library
    • Safe Cholecystectomy Program
      • Safe Cholecystectomy Didactic Modules
    • Masters Program
      • SAGES Facebook Program Collaboratives
      • Acute Care Surgery
      • Bariatric
      • Biliary
      • Colorectal
      • Flexible Endoscopy (upper or lower)
      • Foregut
      • Hernia
      • Robotics
    • Educational Opportunities
    • HPB/Solid Organ Program
    • Courses for Residents
      • Advanced Courses
      • Basic Courses
    • Video Based Assessments (VBA)
    • Robotics Fellows Course
    • MIS Fellows Course
    • Facebook Livestreams
    • Free Webinars For Residents
    • SMART Enhanced Recovery Program
    • SAGES OR SAFETY Video
    • SAGES at Cine-Med
      • SAGES Top 21 MIS Procedures
      • SAGES Pearls
      • SAGES Flexible Endoscopy 101
      • SAGES Tips & Tricks of the Top 21
  • Opportunities
    • NEW-Area of Concentrated Training Seal (ACT)-Advanced Flexible Endoscopy-Coming Soon!
    • SAGES Fellowship Certification for Advanced GI MIS and Comprehensive Flexible Endoscopy
    • Multi-Society Foregut Fellowship Certification
    • SAGES Research Opportunities
    • Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery
    • Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery
    • Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy
    • Job Board
    • SAGES Go Global: Global Affairs and Humanitarian Efforts
  • Search
    • Search All SAGES Content
    • Search SAGES Guidelines
    • Search the Video Library
    • Search the Image Library
    • Search the Abstracts Archive
  • Store
    • “Unofficial” Logo Products
  • Log In

A Comprehensive Process for Disclosing and Managing Conflicts of Interest Reduced Perceived Bias At the SAGES Annual Meeting

Steven C Stain, MD, Erin Schwarz, Phillip Shadduck, MD, Paresh Shah, MD, Sharona B Ross, MD, Patricia Sylla, MD, Yumi Hori, C D Smith, MD. Albany Medical College, Albany, NY; BSC Management, Los Angeles CA; Duke Regional Hospital, Durham NC; New York University, NY NY; Florida Hospital Tampa, Tampa FL, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Jacksonville FL.

Introduction
The relationship between SAGES, its member surgeons and industry has been longstanding, productive technologically, and beneficial to patient care and education. In order to both maintain this important relationship as well as to honor its responsibility to society for increasing transparency, SAGES established a Conflict of Interest Task Force (CITF) and charged it with identifying and managing potential conflicts of interest (COI) and limiting bias at the SAGES Annual Scientific Meetings. To fulfill this responsibility, the CITF developed and implemented a comprehensive process for reporting, evaluating, and managing COI in accordance with ACCME guidelines.

Methods
From 2011 to 2013, all presenters, moderators and session chairs received proactive and progressively increasing levels of education regarding the CITF rationale and processes. All presenters and faculty at the Annual Meeting (faculty, session directors, session moderators, course chairs, and program chairs) were required to disclose all relationships with commercial interests. All disclosures were reviewed and discussed by multiple layers of reviewers, including moderators, chairs, and CITF committee members. Tiered, prescribed actions were implemented in a standardized, uniform fashion (table below).
 

  Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
  Nothing to Disclose Non-relevant Relationship Relevant Relationship Relationship with Ownership Interest Employee of commercial interest
Action by SAGES Review for Accuracy Review by Moderator & CITF Peer Review required prior to Presentation, with changes to Presentation as appropriate Automatic Peer Review prior to Presentation, with changes to Presentation as appropriate Presenter Removed from Faculty
Resulting Actions Print & Present Disclosures Print & Present Disclosures Letter to Faculty Explaining Policy;
Print & Present Disclosures
 
Letter to Faculty Explaining Policy;
Print & Present Disclosures
 
Presentation not Allowed

All attendees at the Annual Meetings were strongly encouraged to complete anonymous surveys regarding perceived biases. The CITF database was then analyzed and compared to the reports of perceived bias to determine if the implementation of this comprehensive process had been effective.

Results

  Number of faculty, presenters, moderators, and chairs Number of faculty, presenters, moderators, and chairs  Resolved by CITF Presentations Reviewed in Advance of Mtg Changes made to presentation Speaker Replaced Reported Bias by Attendees
  No industry relationships Yes industry relationships          
2011 Data not avail Data not avail   6 0 0 18/802 2.2%
2012 350 173 124 49 8 1 10/797 1.2%
2013 264 190 103 93 20 0 11/717 1.5%

 In the three years prior to the implementation of this process, reporting of bias by meeting attendees was 20/427 (4.7%) in 2008, 37/596 (6.2%) in 2009, and 38/856 (4.4%) in 2010. Following implementation of this process, reports of bias were reduced to 1.2-1.5%.

Conclusion
It is possible to have a surgical meeting that includes participation of speakers that have industry relationships. Implementation of a comprehensive, standardized process for reporting, evaluating, and managing COI resulted in a reduction of perceived reports of bias from 4.4-6.2% to 1.2-1.5%, as reported by annual meeting attendees in anonymous surveys.
 

116

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • WhatsApp
  • Reddit

Related

« Return to SAGES 2014 abstract archive

Our Mission

Innovate, educate and collaborate to improve patient care.

Recently, on SAGES…

Critical View of Safety (CVS) Challenge QR Code

The SAGES Critical View of Safety Challenge – Donate Your Lap Chole Videos!

The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons is hosting the first Artificial Intelligence Data Challenge conducted by surgeons. The aim of this challenge is to generate a large and diverse dataset of laparoscopic cholecystectomy videos, annotated with respect to the subcomponents of the Critical View of Safety (CVS). Computer scientists from all over the […]

Respuesta de SAGES al Estudio NordICC sobre el beneficio de las colonoscopias de detección

SAGES desea aclarar los resultados del estudio NordICC y colocarlos en contexto de los esfuerzos de varias agencias nacionales para reducir el riesgo de cáncer colorrectal – la segunda causa de muerte por cáncer más frecuente en los Estados Unidos-, mediante la promoción de la detección y tratamiento oportuno de las lesiones.

SAGES Response to NordICC Study Regarding Benefit of Screening Colonoscopies

The NordICC Study recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine and widely reported on by media outlets has raised questions regarding the benefit of screening colonoscopy in lowering the risk of colorectal cancer and cancer-related deaths among otherwise healthy and symptom-free men and women aged 55 to 64. Provocative headlines and commentaries have […]

Contact SAGES

Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons
11300 W. Olympic Blvd Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90064 USA
webmaster@sages.org
Tel: (310) 437-0544

Find Us Around the Web!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Important Links

SAGES 2023 Meeting Information

Healthy Sooner: Patient Information

SAGES Guidelines, Statements, & Standards of Practice

SAGES Manuals

 

  • taTME Study Info
  • Foundation
  • SAGES.TV
  • MyCME
  • Educational Activities

Copyright © 2023 Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons