A local business owner and philanthropist, whose parent recently died after living with Huntington disease for 15 years, approaches the hospital foundation to offer a significant donation in exchange for creating a new neurological research centre which would be named in memory of the philanthropist’s parent. The hospital has identified its area of greatest need as improving access to primary care for patients in the remote communities it serves, but the donor is not interested in contributing to that mandate.
Is the hospital in a conflict of interest? What is the nature of the potential conflict of interest?
Resources:
- Trudo Lemmens. Institutional Conflicts of Interest. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. http://www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/bioethics/cases/section-3/institutional-conflicts-interest-e
- Lo B, Field MJ, editors. 2009. 8 Institutional Conflict of Interest. In Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice; Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2009. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22934/
- Samantha Relich, Sachin Pendharkar & Michael Nolan. 2016. From DeGroote to Michael Garron: why more medical institutions are selling their names. http://healthydebate.ca/2016/06/topic/hospital-medical-school-renaming
