Cleveland Clinic Tighten Rules Against Conflicts of Interest
In December last year the Wall Street Journal reported the relationship between Dr. Toby Cosgrove, the Cleveland Clinic’s president and CEO, and medical device vendor AtriCure; as well as the hospital’s involvement in a VC fund that invested in it. Hospital Buyer covered it and a relatively similar story involving CardioMEMS. Now the WSJ and AP follow up with information that the clinic trustees approved new rules to manage investments and monitor potential conflicts of interest.
A database will be created to keep track of financial connections between trustees or staff and outside companies. This will let the personnel in charge of purchasing specifically review those transactions when such a connection exists and make sure competitive bidding has taken place. Doctors and executives won’t be allowed to weight in investment decisions made by Foundation Medical Partners (FMP), the VC firm funded by the clinic. Trustees will exert more oversight and make sure there is greater, ongoing transparency.
May 10, 2006 Related topics: Ethics & Scandals, Policies & Procedures, Evaluation & assessment