Abstract

In 1998, when I named and founded what became the second most highly cited peer-reviewed economics journal, Value in Health, as Editor in Chief along with the other ISPOR Board of Directors, I had one overriding mission for the journal, “Tell the Truth.” In the past three decades, ISPOR became a vital and dynamic scientific organization precisely because it brought diverse clinical, economic, epidemiologic, statistical, psychological, and quality of life experts together from all over the globe, from a wide diversity of stakeholders, including academics, pharmaceutical and other biomedical companies, government agencies, non-profits, patients, providers, and payers. For the kinds of research reported in Value in Health it would have been very easy to fall into the trap that one’s science and research findings are automatically biased by one’s funding sources. This ad hominem approach to science is a convenient short cut that we are all somewhat guilty of, often subconsciously. For example, if all the authors on a paper are employees of a specific drug company, what are the chances that the paper concludes that the drug is worthless? We are more likely to read the paper skeptically than if all the authors work at an Ivy League university or non-profit research center. But we shouldn’t indulge that bias. We should be equally skeptical regardless of the source of funding and authorship.