By Suzanne Perry

As part of his investigation into the industry ties of 33 nonprofit medical groups, Sen. Charles E. Grassley asked whether the organizations required board members to disclose their outside income. He also asked for copies of the disclosures from 2006 to 2009.

The Chronicle asked all 33 groups to provide the information that they gave the senator about board members, and about a dozen agreed to do so. Most of the groups said they require board members to reveal their financial relationships with companies that could pose a conflict of interest. But some were more willing than others to make those disclosures public.

At least two of the groups contacted by Senator Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, declined to provide to the senator the specific disclosure forms that their board members had filed. One, Mental Health America, a mental-illness advocacy group, wrote that the statements were provided to his group “with the presumption of confidentiality.”

The second, the American Heart Association, decided it was unfair to forward information that board members, who serve as volunteers, had provided for the organization’s internal purposes, says David Livingston, the group’s chief counsel. He says the association worries that the “unintended consequence” might be to discourage people from joining the board or to be “less than fully forthcoming” in their disclosures.

The charity agreed to provide aggregate information to Senator Grassley, however. It said that of 53 people who served on the board from 2006 to 2009, 13 reported relationships with drug, medical-device, or health-insurance companies. Mr. Livingston said: Three were employees; the others received money for activities like speaking or research. Six of the board members had to suspend their ties because they were officers or incoming officers, as required by the nonprofit’s policy. The others were required to recuse themselves when conducting business that affected the companies or their competitors.

Corporate Ties

By contrast, the Heart Rhythm Society, an association for medical professionals who specialize in cardiac arrhythmia, posts the corporate ties of all board and committee members on its Web site.

A visitor can click, for example, on the disclosure form for the board chairman­—Douglas L. Packer, a doctor at the Mayo Clinic—and learn that he is a speaker for St. Jude Medical and Sanofi-Aventis, that he is a member of advisory boards for Medtronic and CyberHeart, and that he conducts research for Biosense Webster.

• The American Diabetes Association provided a table showing that in 2009, 11 of its 31 board members had affiliations with pharmaceutical, medical-device, or insurance companies­—as stockholders, employees, consultants, researchers, or honoraria recipients.
• The American Dietetic Association said that no board members had filed conflict-of-interest disclosure forms since 2006.
• Children and Adults With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder reported that since 2006 one board member had received two payments from pharmaceutical companies to participate in focus groups; one was expecting to receive an honorarium from a drug maker in the coming months and would transfer it to the nonprofit (as required by the organization’s policy); and a third had received honoraria from pharmaceutical companies since 1995, and since 1998 had donated them to a nonprofit organization.
• The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance reported that one board member had consulted for the pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and Servier International from 2006 to 2009. Another had consulted for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and a third had done training and speaking for Solvay Pharmaceuticals.
• The North American Spine Society provided disclosure forms showing that all but seven of 20 board members reported financial relationships with medical-device companies, including royalties, stock, consulting, and training fees. The group has developed a new policy, however, banning any industry payments after October 2010 to board members for consulting, speaking, or travel.