Sponsor Influences on the Quality and Independence of Health Research: Proceedings of a Workshop (2023)
Chapter: 1 Introduction
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Introduction1
Governments, philanthropic organizations, and private industry fund human health and medical research. As National Academies reports have noted, different sponsors2 might influence research so that the results are more favorable to their agents. There are various ways that funders can influence research, such as by affecting the portfolio’s scope, specific questions asked, experimental design, and choice of principal investigator (PI) (IOM, 2009, 2011, 2014). It might also bias result reporting, analysis, dissemination, and communication and data availability, reanalysis, and replication. As one publication noted, “Reporting bias can skew the perceived risk–benefit ratio of treatments, mislead medical professionals and policy makers, and ultimately result in suboptimal medical decisions” (Mitra-Majumdar and Kesselheim, 2022).
To explore structures, processes, and principles to ensure high-quality health research independent of sponsors’ influence, the National Academies Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice and the Board on Health Sciences Policy hosted a 3-day virtual workshop on December 14–16, 2022, that examined the sources of funding of health research and evidence about whether they influence the quality and outcomes of
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1 The planning committee’s role was limited to planning the workshop, and the Proceedings of a Workshop has been prepared by the workshop rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. Statements, recommendations, and opinions expressed are those of individual presenters and participants, and are not necessarily endorsed or verified by the National Academies, and they should not be construed as reflecting any group consensus.
2 Throughout this proceedings, funder and sponsor are used interchangeably.
research. The workshop also discussed models, process, and principles used to protect the independence and quality of research. Box 1-1 provides the Statement of Task for the workshop. The workshop was jointly funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Rita Allen Foundation.
This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions. The speakers, panelists, and participants presented a broad range of views and ideas. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the evidence regarding whether funding organizations influence research, and Chapter 3 provides examples of sponsor influence on health research. Chapter 4 discusses approaches to protect research integrity, and Chapter 5 examines models, processes, and principles used to protect research independence and quality. Appendixes A and B contain the workshop agenda and biographical sketches of the speakers and session moderators, respectively. The speakers’ presentations (as PDFs and video files) have been archived online.3 Appendix C contains the workshop speaker disclosures.
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3 The workshop speakers’ presentations are available at https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/12-14-2022/sponsor-influences-on-the-quality-and-independence-of-health-research-a-workshop#sectionEventMaterials (accessed February 3, 2023).
