Stacking the Deck

[摘要] When the leaders of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) appointed the heavily conflicted 2006 Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) anemia work group, were they oblivious to the possibility that ANY recommendation of the panel would be considered suspect? Surely they knew not only that Amgen was the founding and principal sponsor of the guideline development (1), but that the chair and vice-chair of the KDOQI steering committee and both co-chairs of the work group were consultants for Amgen, Ortho Biotech, or both (2). To compound the financial conflicts, 11 of the 15 members of the work group had similar arrangements (1,3). And of the 40 or more KDOQI advisory board members who reviewed an early draft of the guidelines (2), how many of them (or the NKF officers) had similar financial conflicts? What an ideal setup for group-think (4)!

[学科分类] 泌尿医学

[关键词] Bone marrow necrosis;Sickle cell disease;Hyperhemolysis syndrome