Managing Conflicts of Interest in Practice Guidelines Panels

To the Editor Dr Sox¹ examined conflict of interest (COI) of practice guidelines panels at 2 levels: the individual panel members and the sponsoring organizations. He proposed 4 principles of management of COI that complement the 2011 standards from the Institute of Medicine (IOM; now the National Academy of Medicine).² The Guidelines International Network also released principles for disclosure of interests and management of conflicts in guidelines in 2015.³ These principles, if implemented adequately, help optimize the trustworthiness of guidelines by minimizing the risk of bias associated with COI and maximizing guideline credibility.