Conflicts of interest in the development of new interventional medical devices.

THE Standards Division of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) recently created the Emerging Technologies Workgroup of the Technology Assessment Committee for the “dissemination of knowledge of groundbreaking information to potential researchers in interventional radiology.” Committee members are requested to determine new technologies and innovations that may become of particular importance to interventional radiologists. Many of these innovations are developed, supported, or promoted at least in part by the medical devices industry. Consequently, cooperation between physician researchers and in-