Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Following is an individual statement for one member of this committee.

Committee Member: David W. Bates, M.D., M.Sc.

In accordance with Section 15 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the
"Academy shall make its best efforts to ensure that ...no individual appointed
to serve on [a] committee has a conflict of interest that is relevant to the
functions to be performed, unless such conflict is promptly and publicly
disclosed and the Academy determines that the conflict is unavoidable." We have
concluded that for the Identifying and Preventing Medications Errors Committee
to accomplish the tasks for which it has been established its membership must
include direct recent expertise of the clinical use of information technology
across a wide range of care settings and disease categories. This expertise is
necessary to assess the capabilities of information technology to identify and
prevent medical errors.

To meet the need for expertise in the clinical use of information technology
across a wide range of care settings, Dr. David Bates at Brigham and Women's
Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, is being proposed for appointment to the
committee even though we have concluded that he has a conflict of interest
because he has personal financial relationships with health care information
technology companies. Dr. Bates is co-inventor of a patent held by Brigham and
Women's Hospital for a decision support tool for radiology test ordering
licensed to Medicalis. From this patent he receives annual income. Dr Bates
also consults for and holds a minority stake in Medicalis, a privately held
company. In addition, Dr Bates serves on the scientific advisory boards of Zynx
Inc. (developer of evidence-based algorithms), Clineguides (developer of
clinical knowledge) and Voltage Inc. (developer of compliance information for
drug companies). Finally, Dr Bates is a consultant to Alaris (maker of smart IV
pumps). These companies could be directly affected by the outcome of this study.

Dr. David Bates is Chief of the Division of Internal Medicine (since 1998) at
the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Professor
(since 2003) at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health,
where he is Co-Director (since 1999) of the Program in Clinical Effectiveness.
He is also the Medical Director (since 1997) of Clinical and Quality Analysis
for Partner's Healthcare Systems, where he evaluates the impact of information
systems across the Partner's network. He was the winner of the prestigious John
M Eisenberg Patient Safety Award in 2002. Dr. Bates is a graduate of the
Stanford University and received his MD at Johns Hopkins Medical School. He is
a practicing, Board-certified physician in Internal Medicine.

Dr. Bates has researched medication errors in a very wide range of care
settings - hospitals, nursing homes, community care, pediatric care, and
psychiatric care. He has also researched and written widely on the
methodological aspects of medication error detection and analysis. Dr. Bates is
one of the nation's leading researchers on using information technology to
measure and improve patient safety and has pioneered computer-based detection
of errors. Dr. Bates has also worked with many leading national patient
safety/health care quality groups including Leapfrog Group, National Alliance
for Primary Care Informatics, Institute of Safe Medication Practices, National
Quality Forum, and the Study of Clinically Relevant Indicators for
Pharmacologic Therapy (SCRIPT).

After an extensive search, we have been unable to find another individual with
recent, equivalent expertise, but without comparable personal investments.
Therefore, we have concluded that this conflict is unavoidable.

Committee Membership Roster Comments

As of April 5, 2005, Dr Cannon was added to the committee. Dr. William Evans is no longer on the committee, effective March 11, 2005.

Note (02/14/2006): The bio-sketches of the following four members have been updated - Dr Califf, Dr Flynn, Mr Inlander, and Dr Wu.