Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest may be considered to exist if a continuing dental education course speaker is affiliated with, or has financial interest in, any organization(s) that may be co-sponsoring a course. Or a conflict of interest may exist if a speaker is affiliated with or has financial interest in any organization(s) that may have a direct interest in the subject matter of the presentation. Situations involving a potential conflict of interest are not inherently wrong, but the prospective audience must be made aware of the affiliation/financial interest via an acknowledgment in the faculty listing in the program announcement and syllabus. 

The intent of this policy is not to prevent a speaker with an affiliation or financial interest from making a presentation. It is intended that any potential conflict be identified openly so that the attendees have full disclosure of the facts and may form their own judgments about the presentation. A reasonable test to guide decisions about what to disclose is whether any particular affiliation could cause embarrassment to the individual or institution involved, or lead to questions about the speaker's motives if such affiliation(s) were made known to the general public.

So that the Office of Continuing Dental Education will have the correct information, each course speaker must complete a Conflict of Interest Declaration Form prior to any course.

• All speakers will their disclosures by listing them on the PowerPoint slide after the title slide.
• Speakers will also include the statement below after the list of disclosures on a separate slide.
• “Dental educational institutions have an obligation to disseminate new knowledge related to dental practice. In so doing, some presentations may include controversial materials or commercial references.  Sponsorship of a continuing dental education course by The University of Tennessee Health Science Center  College of Dentistry and the Office of Continuing Dental Education does not necessarily imply endorsement of a particular philosophy, views expressed, procedure, or product by this institution.”