STUDENT ID: 10933075

NAME: ANITA BARNIE

Article Reviewed: Grundy Q., Habibi R., Shnier A., Mayes C. and Lipworth W. (2018),
Decoding disclosure: Comparing conflict of interest policy among the United States, France, and
Australia, Health Policy, Volume 122, Issue 5, Pages 509-518, ISSN 0168-8510. Available at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2018.03.015.

The article, “Decoding disclosure: Comparing conflict of interest policy among the United
States, France, and Australia” by Grundy et al. gives more understanding into the importance of
disclosure of public policies in healthcare while considering that giving attention to transparency
is not the only way to manage conflict of interest.

The paper argues that Sunshine laws have originated because of the increasing agitation about
the control of health-based industries in the decision making process of health experts and its
concomitant conflicts of interest. According to the research, people support that the financial
connections between health professionals and health-related companies must be publicly
accounted for and reported in order to bring under the control he influence of these industries and
their conflicts of interest. This helps give some form of power to those who may be especially
affected by unfair decisions made. The research states that reporting publicly these connections
will discourage unsuitable relationships that exists between health workers and industry thereby
building the trust of the general public. However, transparency, according to the research is not
the only means of governing these conflicts of interest and therefore, the subsequent emergence
of disclosure as a major solution to public policy in the alliance of health professionals and
industry.

The article followed a clear sequential order of the research process in a logical way. Also, the
research settings; i.e. United States of America, France and Australia, were properly and well
described and the reasons for the formulation and implementation of Sunshine policies in their
various health sectors were given. The theoretical framework for the research was identified and
vividly described. In establishing the theoretical framework to answer the question of the effects
of focusing on transparency in public policy, the research adopted the theory of Carol Bacchi.
This theoretical framework approach for the study is very appropriate.
The title of the research stated the selected sample for the study and the comparison between the
conflict of interest of their public policy but was not specific to the fact that the policy was
concerned with public health even though the paper was centered on health professionals and
their relationship with industry. Also, in spite of the comprehensive results and in-depth
discussion of these results, the authors failed to present recommendations for future study.

For ethical administration in Ghana, dealings of public professionals and industry must not only
be reported on but must be readily made available to the public through various channels such as
the media and the internet. The dealings between these two entities must be made clear in terms
of financial transactions of payments and the manufacturers who are bounded by the policy must
be easily accessible to the public to build trust of health consumers.