Response to the editorial by Dr Geraghty by the PACE Trial team

[Hilary]

White, Chalder and Sharpe complaining about conflicts of interest?! The hypocrisy is beyond belief and I hope they will eventually receive the opprobrium they deserve.

 

[Jenny TipsforME]

It isn't a conflict of interest. He just has very strong motivation to get good science for ME. A lot of people research something of personal interest. The people least likely to have conflicts of interest over ME research are pwme or their carers. We aren't likely to be sidetracked by career advantages and so on.

They are talking about disclosing personal motivations (which isn't the same as Conflict of Interest). In terms of being transparent about personal perspective, there could be a bigger place for that in research, but it definitely doesn't feel appropriate to have patient-researchers prove that they do have the condition. That would be humiliating and unnecessary.

 

[Chrisb]

It's all a matter of subjective measures again. It conflicts with their interests.

 

[Mithriel]

I spoke about this to my husband who is a medical microbiologist. He was OUTRAGED. Someone's medical status is private and it is totally unethical to make it public. Looking at someone's medical history without authority is a firing offence. To bring in a requirement that any illness should be made public goes against every medical ethic and that doctors are demanding this is quite shocking.

Mithriel