Thursday, July 30, 2009


"We're not violating a legal statute"


(I guess first do no harm is not a legal statute...)

Dr. Frank Cerra, new medical school dean at University of Minnesota, responds to questions about Dr. Polly and foot dragging on new conflict of interest policy.

Yesterday morning I had a short exchange with Dr. Cerra at an open forum for our medical school. This short video clip shows that exchange.



"We're not violating a legal statute"


How about: "First, do no harm..."?


Dr. Cerra claims that terrible complexity is justification for the two years spent - so far - with conflict of interest still on the table. Meanwhile, our neighbors in Iowa started this process in January and now have a new policy in place:

Iowa Does the Right Thing on COI
They started in January of this year

And, incredibly, we learn toward the end of the session that Dr. Cerra likes short time lines!



"I like short time lines, because it promotes focus."

Except for conflict of interest matters?

Finally, as a reward for going through this unpleasant stuff, I leave you with a humming chorus of the unofficial U of M medical school anthem:






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