Background
Identification and management of potential conflict of interest
(COI) and bias issues are paramount to the success and credibility
of any peer consultation program composed of external scientific
experts.
TERA’s
conflict of interest and bias policy for VCCEP panel candidates
follows procedures in accordance with the U.S.
Office
of Management and Budget,
the National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. EPA. These
procedures are described in more detail at http://www.tera.org/peer/COI.html
. Additionally, TERA has identified specific items
which are considered to be conflicts of interest or biases for
VCCEP panel candidates and has prepared a policy and procedure
governing VCCEP panelist selection. These items are defined
and described below.
Definitions
Conflict of Interest
Conflict
of Interest (COI) for a VCCEP peer consultation panel candidate
specifically includes, but is not limited to:
- Working for an organization sponsoring the chemical to be
reviewed at the panel meeting,
- Having direct personal financial investments in the
sponsoring organization or in the chemical itself, or
- Authoring the sponsoring organization’s assessment
documents submitted to the VCCEP panel.
Bias
Bias for a VCCEP
peer consultation panel candidate specifically includes, but is not
limited to"
- Has previously taken a public position on subjects to be
discussed by the panel, or
- Is affiliated with an industry, governmental, public
interest, or other group with a partiality regarding subjects
to be discussed by the panel.
Most scientists with technical expertise in areas relevant to
VCCEP will have existing opinions about the subject matter and
therefore may be considered to have some degree of bias.
Policy
TERA’s policy on COI and bias for VCCEP peer consultation
panel members is as follows:
- Candidates will
disclose all potential conflicts of interest and biases to TERA
during the selection process.
- Candidates with COI will not be eligible
for membership on those panels where their conflicts apply;
however, they may be selected as Core Group panel members and
participate in other panel meetings. Core Group panel members
must recuse themselves for specific chemical panels in which
they have a COI.
- Candidates with biases generally will be eligible for all
panel memberships; however, extreme biases, such as those
likely to impair a candidate’s ability to make meaningful
scientific contributions, will disqualify a candidate.
- The overall membership of each panel will reflect a range of
biases.
Procedure
TERA will
implement its VCCEP policy on COI and bias as follows:
- Candidates who meet scientific qualifications and other
criteria will be requested to provide written disclosure of
potential COI and biases to TERA by completing
written questionnaires. TERA will treat the
questionnaires as private and personal information.
- TERA
will discuss potential COI and bias issues with
each candidate individually.
- TERA
will determine whether each candidate meets the
VCCEP peer consultation panel COI and bias requirements
according to the Policy stated above.
- All biases related to the selected panelists will be
disclosed at the panel meeting and noted in the panel meeting
report.
If you have questions about TERA’s nomination and
selection policy, please contact Dan Briggs at (513) 542-7475,
ext. 21 (briggs@tera.org).
