Transparency in medical research: Time for a paradigm shift

Transparency is now recognised to play a crucial role in increasing accountability in health care . For this reason, stringent disclosure requirements have been developed by universities, hospitals and medical journals to document potential conflicts of interest , and voluntary codes of conduct have been adopted by industry organizations  Indeed, medical research is very highly regulated. National authorities are appointed in almost every country worldwide to oversee and monitor medical research. In North America, the National Institutes of Health  and the Food and Drug Administration regulations oversee new drug development . Similarly, in Europe, the European Medicines Agency , and, in Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare  have issued significant laws covering financial ties in research.