Disclosure of Conflict of Interest

Abstract

Medical education including professional guidelines ultimately serves the community based public health. Funding is involved in the development of reviews, evidence based practice and clinical practice guidelines that are intended to help translate research findings into grass-root level practice for the citizens of the world. Further, they help us shaping clinical choices and may even be used to evaluate professional or institutional performance. Financial conflicts of interest with or without political color have divided human mindset historically needs elaborate discussions and are not under consideration of this discussion in this space of editorial. The fact that all human beings are biased is welldocumented in the literature of neuro- and cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and clinical epidemiology. In the arena of non-financial competing interests, there is spectrum of personal, social, political, communal, academic, ideological, religious or even unidentified biological factors; they can influence professional judgment. Furthermore, the very nature of academic and editorial work ensures that none of us are immune. Expertise in itself presents a kind of conflict of interest. Like commercial interests, non-financial competing interests can influence professional judgment