Physician researchers receiving federal grants will have stricter conflict-of-interest rules to follow starting in August 2012.

The first change to Dept. of Health and Human Services regulations in this area since 1995 comes in response to widely reported cases of federally funded researchers failing to disclose millions in pay from medical industry firms. Researchers soon must publicly disclose any industry payments, stock holdings and equity interests of more than $5,000 during the previous year. Their academic institutions will have to file plans with the funding agency explaining how they are managing conflicts of interest posed by such financial relationships.

My latest. Read the whole shebang.