Conflict of interest on research project

[Birdnals]

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So I was pretty excited to get a call back from a professor regarding a position as a research assistant last week. He deals with long term health policy and with my major being economics I thought it would be a good blend of health and economics.

I went to his office yesterday to talk about what I would be working on. The project he's working on and wants me to join hypothesizes that the the local comprehensive cancer center, which is affiliated with the school and my top medical school choice, cherry pick patients based on payer type and estimated survival rates.

The project sounds compelling and the numbers/charts I looked at seem to coincide with his hypothesis. I know that if I worked on this project I would give it more than a fair shake in making sure that his hypothesis is true before attaching my name to his project. My concern is the obvious conflict of interest represented here.

Does anyone think that I would be at risk of black balling myself from the local medical school (not to mention the fact that I have an interest in oncology) if I involve myself in a study that damns their cancer center like this? Any suggestions how I could still work on this project without doing so?

Thanks in advance guys. I typed this on my iPad so if the spelling is messed up that's why.

 

[whatbout2morrow]

So I was pretty excited to get a call back from a professor regarding a position as a research assistant last week. He deals with long term health policy and with my major being economics I thought it would be a good blend of health and economics.

I went to his office yesterday to talk about what I would be working on. The project he's working on and wants me to join hypothesizes that the the local comprehensive cancer center, which is affiliated with the school and my top medical school choice, cherry pick patients based on payer type and estimated survival rates.

The project sounds compelling and the numbers/charts I looked at seem to coincide with his hypothesis. I know that if I worked on this project I would give it more than a fair shake in making sure that his hypothesis is true before attaching my name to his project. My concern is the obvious conflict of interest represented here.

Does anyone think that I would be at risk of black balling myself from the local medical school (not to mention the fact that I have an interest in oncology) if I involve myself in a study that damns their cancer center like this? Any suggestions how I could still work on this project without doing so?

Thanks in advance guys. I typed this on my iPad so if the spelling is messed up that's why.

Will other cancer centers be examined as well? Is there any real connection to state/national health policy, or is it focussed on this one hospital's practices?

 

[Birdnals]

I posed the the idea of comparing like data sets at similar cancer centers to compare our center to others and he liked that idea.

He hasn't mentioned any tie-ins to policy and the focus appears to be this one particular center.

 

[LizzyM]

When I've seen publications based on this type of research, the names of the institutions are withheld to protect the innocent (or guilty, as the case may be). I could not imagine the cancer center at my school calling the dean of admissions in an attempt to blackball a possible applicant who co-authored a paper that sullied the reputation of the institution. No one is likely to put two and two together and figure out that an author of this paper is also an applicant for admission.

 

[Birdnals]

Thank you for the response Lizzy. I'm not too worried about the cancer center calling. I don't even know if my name wold be attached to the publication, assuming it would even get published. I'm wondering if it would be awkward, however, whenever I went to sit for an interview and am asked about my research experience. Regardless of whether or not it was published, my name was in it, or the name of the institution was in it, what would be the best way to describe this? When someone says "tell me about your research experiences," how does one gracefully explain that they spent hours uncovering dirt on the attached cancer center?

I'm sure I'm make much ado about nothing but nonetheless want to make sure I'm not digging myself a whole.

As a funny side note I actually have an interview for a volunteer position at said cancer center this week. Funny how things work.

Thanks again for the info. I look forward to hearing more.

 

[DAPI]

Thank you for the response Lizzy. I'm not too worried about the cancer center calling. I don't even know if my name wold be attached to the publication, assuming it would even get published. I'm wondering if it would be awkward, however, whenever I went to sit for an interview and am asked about my research experience. Regardless of whether or not it was published, my name was in it, or the name of the institution was in it, what would be the best way to describe this? When someone says "tell me about your research experiences," how does one gracefully explain that they spent hours uncovering dirt on the attached cancer center?

I'm sure I'm make much ado about nothing but nonetheless want to make sure I'm not digging myself a whole.

As a funny side note I actually have an interview for a volunteer position at said cancer center this week. Funny how things work.

Thanks again for the info. I look forward to hearing more.

Now this is a conflict of interest. I know the places I have volunteered have asked me to fill out a conflict of interest form and this would definitely qualify - also, the research institution should make you fill out one too and this would qualify there too. I would discuss this with the PI before pursuing either of these things further.

 

[LizzyM]

So you say, "We investigated access to care, resource utilization and survival of patients with diseases x y and z. We used data from ___ and controlled for ___. We had data on __ patients which is a good size data set. As we suspected, some cancer centers are selective and they.... It well may be that your interviewer will not be aware of this research or even sympathetic. (I certainly don't agree with every policy of our affiliated hospitals.)

 

[whatbout2morrow]

Thank you for the response Lizzy. I'm not too worried about the cancer center calling. I don't even know if my name wold be attached to the publication, assuming it would even get published. I'm wondering if it would be awkward, however, whenever I went to sit for an interview and am asked about my research experience. Regardless of whether or not it was published, my name was in it, or the name of the institution was in it, what would be the best way to describe this? When someone says "tell me about your research experiences," how does one gracefully explain that they spent hours uncovering dirt on the attached cancer center?

I'm sure I'm make much ado about nothing but nonetheless want to make sure I'm not digging myself a whole.

As a funny side note I actually have an interview for a volunteer position at said cancer center this week. Funny how things work.

Thanks again for the info. I look forward to hearing more.

Now this is a conflict of interest. I know the places I have volunteered have asked me to fill out a conflict of interest form and this would definitely qualify - also, the research institution should make you fill out one too and this would qualify there too. I would discuss this with the PI before pursuing either of these things further.

Agree with DAPI. There was no conflict of interest in your original situation, but the volunteer position puts you at a possible conflict of interest.