>My Hospital is revisiting the question of finder's fees for clinical
>studies. For those unfamiliar, fees are sometimes paid to medical
>professionals who encourage patients with specific diseases or characteristics
>to participate in research studies. We currently do not permit such fees as
>a potential conflict of interest. One possibility under consideration is to
>disallow fees only when the 'recruiter' is also the initial contact for
>the project (i.e., the person who explains the informed consent form). I
>would be interested in the policies of your organizations with regard to
>finder's fees. You may respond on or off the list; I will compile the
>results and post them to the list.

Fascinating topic.  I would think that an IRB would have a position on this
issue.

For the record, UCHC has no policy which addresses this topic.  We are
developing a COI policy which will require financial disclosure if annual
payments from research sponsors exceed $5K.  Presumably the financial
disclosure will bring such relationships to the attention of the COI Mgmt.
Committee, which will decide if the situation is manageable.

Len

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Leonard P. Paplauskas    Assistant Vice President for Research     |
203-679-3173             University of Connecticut Health Center   |
FAX 679-2670             Farmington, CT   06030-5355               |
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xxxxxx@sun.uchc.edu                                            |
xxxxxx@neuron.uchc.edu                                           |
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