THE LENZER-BROWNLEE LIST OF INDEPENDENT EXPERT SOURCES

Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer (see her biography below) have compiled a list of medical experts who are free from commercial and financial conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical and device industries. Medical reporters and journal editors commonly claim that they can’t find medical experts who are not taking money from industry. We also hear this complaint from such government agencies as the National Institutes of Health, which puts together panels of experts to create guidelines for physicians, and the Food and Drug Administration, which relies on advisory panels for guidance about whether or not to approve a drug or device.

Their problem is now solved.

The Lenzer-Brownlee list includes highly regarded and well-known physicians, medical editors, researchers, and experts from virtually all fields of medicine and research, including epidemiology, pharmacology, and drug development, oncology, bioethics, psychiatry, internal medicine, cardiology, and methodology. These experts, along with a few select journalists, have agreed to make themselves available (their time permitting) to national and international media, and to serve on advisory panels and editorial boards. They have agreed to make their phone numbers and emails public, and to inform the list if their conflict of interest status should change.

With this list, Lenzer and Brownlee hope to counter the excuse that "we couldn't find anyone who wasn't funded by industry."