Clinical guideline developers are not adhering to standards on minimizing financial conflicts, increasing transparency and explaining the evidence used to make their recommendations, according to an Archives of Internal Medicine study.

Fewer than half of the 114 guidelines randomly sampled from the National Guideline Clearinghouse met most of the “standards for developing trustworthy clinical practice guidelines” set forth by an Institute of Medicine committee in March 2011. The typical guideline met 44% of the IOM standards, said the study, published Oct. 22. For example, the IOM said panel chairs and co-chairs should not have financial conflicts. More than 70% of guideline panel chairs listed a financial conflict, and more than 90% of co-chairs had a conflict.

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