Abstract

Conflicts of interest in clinical trials occur when funders or trial researchers have an interest in a particular direction of a trial result, for example, a commercial company whose product is tested in the trial or a trial researcher with financial ties to the company. Conflicts of interest are common in clinical trials, particularly in drug and device trials, and such conflicts risk unduly influencing how a trial is designed, conducted, analysed, or reported. Medical journals typically address conflicts of interest by requiring the transparent reporting of funding sources, trial researchers’ conflicts of interest, and their involvement in the trial. Previously, there has been little consensus on how to address conflicts of interest in trials included in evidence synthesis, such as systematic reviews. In most systematic reviews, trial conflicts of interest are not addressed at all, or trial funding sources are merely reported without assessing the potential influence on the trial. A new Tool for Addressing Conflicts of Interest in Trials (TACIT) provides systematic reviewers with a framework for collecting, processing, and interpreting information on conflicts of interest in trials. TACIT allows users to judge the concern about conflicts of interest in a trial and the quality of information the judgement was based on. The assessments may be incorporated into review analyses.