Managing institutional conflicts: Stakeholder accounts of communication between conflict of interest and technology transfer offices.

There have been repeated calls for academic institutions to develop policies and procedures to manage institutional conflicts of interest (ICOI) arising from technology transfer activities. While prior research has examined adoption of ICOI policies by medical schools and universities, little is known about how these institutions handle ICOI in practice, hindering the development of evidence-based recommendations to improve ICOI management. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 senior administrators responsible for research integrity and conflict of interest issues at academic institutions. Data were analyzed using a descriptive qualitative content analysis approach, combining flexible coding to index the interview data with close examination, interpretation, and synthesis of coded content. Participants identified communication and information sharing between conflict of interest (COI) and technology transfer (TT) offices as a critical factor in the effective management of ICOI and suggested several strategies to strengthen coordination between these offices. These findings suggest that academic research institutions could strengthen COI programs by taking measures to improve communication and information sharing between COI and TT offices.

User Information Sharing and Hospital Website Privacy Policies.

Importance: Hospital websites frequently use tracking technologies that transfer user information to third parties. It is not known whether hospital websites include privacy policies that disclose relevant details regarding tracking. Objective: To determine whether hospital websites have accessible privacy policies and whether those policies contain key information related to third-party tracking. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this cross-sectional content analysis of website privacy policies of a nationally representative sample of nonfederal acute care hospitals, hospital websites were first measured to determine whether they included tracking technologies that transferred user information to third parties. Hospital website privacy policies were then identified using standardized searches. Policies were assessed for length and readability. Policy content was analyzed using a data abstraction form. Tracking measurement and privacy policy retrieval and analysis took place from November 2023 to January 2024. The prevalence of privacy policy characteristics was analyzed using standard descriptive statistics. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary study outcome was the availability of a website privacy policy. Secondary outcomes were the length and readability of privacy policies and the inclusion of privacy policy content addressing user information collected by the website, potential uses of user information, third-party recipients of user information, and user rights regarding tracking and information collection. Results: Of 100 hospital websites, 96 (96.0%; 95% CI, 90.1%-98.9%) transferred user information to third parties. Privacy policies were found on 71 websites (71.0%; 95% CI, 61.6%-79.4%). Policies were a mean length of 2527 words (95% CI, 2058-2997 words) and were written at a mean grade level of 13.7 (95% CI, 13.4-14.1). Among 71 privacy policies, 69 (97.2%; 95% CI, 91.4%-99.5%) addressed types of user information automatically collected by the website, 70 (98.6%; 95% CI, 93.8%-99.9%) addressed how collected information would be used, 66 (93.0%; 95% CI, 85.3%-97.5%) addressed categories of third-party recipients of user information, and 40 (56.3%; 95% CI, 44.5%-67.7%) named specific third-party companies or services receiving user information. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cross-sectional study of hospital website privacy policies, a substantial number of hospital websites did not present users with adequate information about the privacy implications of website use, either because they lacked a privacy policy or had a privacy policy that contained limited content about third-party recipients of user information.

Medical journals and advertiser tracking-Consequences for patients, clinicians, and editors.

Medical journal websites frequently contain tracking code that transfers data about journal readers to third parties. These data give drug, device, and other medical product companies a potentially powerful resource for targeting advertisements and other marketing materials to journal readers based on unique attributes and medical interests that can be inferred from the articles they read. Thus, while editors may strictly regulate the content of advertisements that such companies place in their journals' pages, they simultaneously provide those companies with the means to target readers in other forums, possibly in ways that subvert editorial guidelines. We examine the implications of third-party tracking on medical journal webpages, and recommend actions that publishers, editors, and academic societies can take to curb it.

3D Covalent Organic Framework as a Metastable Intermediate in the Formation of a Double-Stranded Helical Covalent Polymer.

The design and development of intricate artificial architectures have been pursued for decades. Helical covalent polymer (HCP) was recently reported as an unexpected topology that consists of chiral 1D polymers assembled through weak hydrogen bonds from achiral building blocks. However, many questions remained about the formation, driving force, and the single-handedness observed in each crystal. In this work, we reveal a metastable, racemic, fully covalently cross-linked, 3D covalent organic framework (COF) as an intermediate in the early stage of polymerization, which slowly converts into single-handed HCP double helices through partial fragmentation and self-sorting with the aid of a series of hydrogen bonding. Our work provides an intriguing example where weak noncovalent bonds serve as the determining factor of the overall product structure and facilitate the formation of a sophisticated polymeric architecture.

The Scope and Legal Implications of Tracking Technologies on Hospital Websites.

This Viewpoint analyzes the scope and legal implications of tracking on hospital websites, including potential HIPAA and state privacy law violations, and suggests that hospitals limit such tracking.

Ethical Responsibilities for Companies That Process Personal Data.

It has become increasingly difficult for individuals to exercise meaningful control over the personal data they disclose to companies or to understand and track the ways in which that data is exchanged and used. These developments have led to an emerging consensus that existing privacy and data protection laws offer individuals insufficient protections against harms stemming from current data practices. However, an effective and ethically justified way forward remains elusive. To inform policy in this area, we propose the Ethical Data Practices framework. The framework outlines six principles relevant to the collection and use of personal data-minimizing harm, fairly distributing benefits and burdens, respecting autonomy, transparency, accountability, and inclusion-and translates these principles into action-guiding practical imperatives for companies that process personal data. In addition to informing policy, the practical imperatives can be voluntarily adopted by companies to promote ethical data practices.