AASLD Ethics Committee Works to Protect the Integrity of the Association 

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By Ann Haran, AASLD Staff

The AASLD Ethics Committee is currently facing a number of exciting challenges. Under the leadership of Committee Chair Henry Bodenheimer, Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center, the committee is hard at work on various projects that will help to maintain and protect the integrity of our association.

As of right now, the committee is working to establish policies and procedures to disclose and manage conflicts of interest that may potentially exist among the leadership  of the Association. According to Dr. Bodenheimer, committee members have “familiarized themselves with the policies used by other organizations and are sensitive to the public scrutiny that is currently being applied to organizations.” The Ethics Committee is continuing to define conflicts of interest and analyze the impact such conflicts may have on Association decision making, and has drafted a policy concerning managing conflicts of interest pertaining to members of the Practice Guidelines Committee, the Governing Board, and journal editors. 

The Ethics Committee is also charged with managing and commenting on other ethical concerns that involve the AASLD membership and the response of the association to the various concerns of individual members. Additionally, the committee is responsible for reviewing conflict of interest disclosures received from individuals who are seeking election to leadership positions.

Dr. Bodenheimer reveals that the major challenge the committee currently faces is to “develop fair and practical policies that sufficiently protect the integrity of the organization, but at the same time recognize the multiple real life connections represented in the membership of our broad-based association.” As he prepares to finish up his three year term as Committee Chair at the end of 2010, Dr. Bodenheimer looks forward to guiding the committee towards being effective in “establishing policies that can be practically enforced and will allow AASLD to assume leadership among professional societies in operationalizing ethical principles.”