SAGES 2017

SAGES Policy on Conflict of Interest
A. Identifying Conflicts of Interest
SAGES has implemented a five-tiered approach towards identifying potential conflicts of interest.
1. Members of committees involved in the planning of CME activities, including the Board of Governors, must
provide a financial disclosure in advance of participation in a committee meeting. These disclosures are
sent to the committee in advance of each committee meeting. Attendees are reminded about the disclosure
policy at each committee meeting, and any committee member with a conflict is asked to recuse him or
herself from the discussion of any CME activities. Chairs and/or Co-Chairs are responsible for ensuring
conflicts are managed by appropriate mechanisms (balanced by input from other committee members or
recusal).
2. Course Directors for CME activities must provide their financial disclosures along with their suggested course
outline and faculty. This information is forwarded to the Conflict of Interest Task Force, who then determines
whether or not a potential conflict exists and if so, makes edits, changes or recommendations to the outline.
3. Invited faculty for CME activities must provide their financial disclosures upon invitation to serve as faculty.
These disclosures are reviewed by the Course or Session Chairs, conflicts are identified, and management
mechanisms are determined. The CITF Chair and Co-Chair review all disclosures, conflicts and management
suggestions by Course and Session Chairs, and make the final decision regarding this.
4. All content authors of scientific abstracts must provide disclosure upon submission. Abstracts are peer
reviewed in a blinded fashion by multiple reviewers from the Program Committee and are selected for
presentation based on scientific merit. All disclosures are provided to the Program Committee during the
“Put-The-Program-Together” meeting at which abstracts are selected for presentation. No content author
may be an employee of a commercial interest.
5. All speakers at SAGES CME activities must display a list of financial disclosures on the first slide of their
presentation and disclosures are printed in the program materials.
B. Managing Potential Conflicts of Interest
SAGES has implemented several mechanisms to manage conflicts of interest prior to an educational activity.
1. Recusal, such as the committee member recusing him or herself from discussion of CME activities.
2. Oversight by the committee Chair or Co-Chair to ensure conflicts do not arise during committee planning
sessions.
3. The SAGES Conflict of Interest Task force reviews all Course Director’s disclosures, proposed course outlines
and faculty lists. The Conflict of Interest Task Force will make edits to the course outline or faculty list if
necessary.
4. Course and Session Chairs are responsible for determining whether or not a conflict exists and if so, how to
manage this conflict.
5. If a conflict is determined, then a notice is sent (via mail or email) to the faculty member, requiring them to
adhere to the management technique or else recuse him or herself from the presentation.
6. During the session, the Course Director observes the presentations and makes note of commercial bias. If
any is perceived, this is immediately reported to the staff.
7. All attendees of CME activities are requested to make note of perceived commercial bias in activity
evaluations and bias report forms. The Conflict of Interest Task Force and/or the CME Committee will
investigate substantive concerns.
SAGES Program Committee
Chair: Jon Gould, MD
Co-Chair: Melissa Lapinska, MD
Adnan Alseidi, MD
Horacio Asbun, MD
Simon Bergman, MD
James Bittner, MD
Steven Bowers, MD
Fredrick Brody, MD
Edward Felix, MD
Michel Gagner, MD
Matthew Goldblatt, MD
Carroll Harmon, MD
Daniel Herron, MD
Rana Higgins, MD
Michael Holzman, MD, MPH
Gretchen Purcell Jackson, MD, PhD
Daniel Jones, MD
Andrew Kastenmeier, MD
Leena Khaitan, MD
Marina Kurian, MD
Robert Lim, MD
John Marks, MD
Jeffrey Marks, MD
Brent Matthews, MD
Stephen McNatt, MD
Sumeet Mittal, MD
Jonathan Myers, MD
Sheetal Nijhawan, MD
Dmitry Oleynikov, MD
Edward Phillips, MD
Archana Ramaswamy, MD
Sharona Ross, MD
Bethany Sacks, MD
Christopher Schlachta, MD
Don Selzer, MD
Ali Tavakkoli, MD
Dana Telem, MD
Thadeus Trus, MD
Sivamainthan Vithiananthan, MD
Manabu Yamamoto, MD
Tonia Young-Fadok, MD
Natan Zundel, MD
SAGES 2017 Surgical Spring Week
SAGES Conflict of Interest Task Force:
Chair: Patricia Sylla, MD
Peter Denk, MD
Daniel Deziel, MD
Terrence Fullum, MD
Jeffrey Marks, MD
Brendan Marr, MD
Philip Omotosho, MD
Sharona Ross, MD
Phillip Shadduck, MD
Paresh Shah, MD
Ketan Sheth, MD
Prashant Sinha, MD
Steven Stain, MD
Kiran Turaga, MD
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