Relationships with Industry

Relationships with Industry Policy

Under the Relationships with Industry policy, all USC healthcare professionals who engage in outside activity (including advisory board work) for pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, device and medical equipment manufacturers, and other healthcare suppliers must follow certain requirements when they engage in such activity, regardless of whether there is any relationship between that outside activity and research at the university, and regardless of the amount of compensation.

These include, but are not limited to:

  • There must be a written contract between the healthcare provider and the company for whom he/she is performing services that describes the legitimate, commercial need for the services to be provided
  • There must be an explicit statement of work setting forth the nature of the services to be provided
  • The healthcare professional may only be paid a reasonable fair market value hourly rate for the services to be provided.
  • The healthcare professional may only receive reimbursement for meals, hospitality, travel and lodging in connection with meetings for consulting and other services to a “modest value.”
  • The relationship cannot present a conflict of interest or commitment with the USC healthcare professional’s primary duty of loyalty and commitment to USC, as defined under the Conflict of Interest and Commitment policy.
  • If the outside activity also relates in any way to research taking place at USC, the USC healthcare professional must make the appropriate disclosure under the Conflict of Interest in Research policy.

These relationships also must be disclosed in diSClose, USC’s online disclosure system, to the USC healthcare professional’s department chair or chair designee to ensure that the agreement complies with the requirements of the policy.