Should Academic Emergency Departments Collaborate in Pharmaceutical Industry-Sponsored Research?

Historically, academic centers have been the venue for conducting important clinical trials. Teams of welltrained investigators functioning in well controlled settings have set the standard for rigorous scientific design and data interpretation in clinical trials. Institutional review boards have contributed to research subject safety and minimization of scientific misconduct. This system has been in place throughout time and we have seen many amazing discoveries. However, with rising medical costs and greater economic restraints, the academic centers have lost funding and turned to private sources of investment. The once clear boundary between industry and academic centers is now frighteningly blurred; even worse, many drug trials are conducted entirely outside traditional academic centers. The pharmaceutical industry now runs much of the medical research in this country, but the questions is: To to whom are these companies and academics now accountable?