STAT retracts op-ed piece and changes guidelines

Health care news site STAT has retracted one op-ed piece, as explained in this editor’s note and tightened its standards for opinion pieces and its practices for vetting writers.

Executive editor Rick Berke of STAT writes, “We have always asked contributors to disclose any conflicts of interest, and believe the vast majority of the opinion pieces we have published — reflecting a wide range of viewpoints across a wide range of subjects — included relevant disclosures.

“But in hindsight, we realize that we should have been more explicit in defining exactly what constitutes a conflict — so we will now require writers to answer a series of direct questions about those issues. We are also requiring contributors to disclose any assistance they received in writing their piece. You can view our revised author agreement here.”

Read more here. In the op-ed piece “How pharma sales reps help me be a more up-to-date doctor,” a doctor failed to disclose that he had received $300,000 from pharmaceutical companies, including one that he mentioned in the piece.