ORIGINAL REPORTS Development of an Industry Relations Policy by the Association of Program Directors in Surgery: A Report from the Finance Committee Paula M. Termuhlen, MD, FACS,* Richard B. Damewood, MD, † Daniel Dent, MD, ‡ George Fuhrman, MD, § Carl Haisch, MD,  M. Timothy Nelson, MD, ¶ Karen Borman, MD, # and Mark Friedell, MD** *Department of Surgery, Wright State University, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio; † Department of Surgery, York Hospital, York, Pennsylvania; ‡ Department of Surgery, University of Texas, Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas; § Department of Surgery, Atlanta Medical Center, Atlanta, Georgia;  Department of Surgery, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina; ¶ Department of Surgery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; # Department of Surgery, Abington Memorial, Attleboro, Pennsylvania; and **Department of Surgery, Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando, Florida KEY WORDS: industry relations, conflict of interest, professionalism COMPETENCY: Professionalism, Systems Based Practice, In- terpersonal and Communication Skills INTRODUCTION One primary role of a residency program director is to serve as a role model for behavior and professionalism. Within the past 5 years, awareness has been raised of the problem of the poten- tial influence of industry on research, practice, and teaching in academic health centers, medical schools, and institutions where residency programs reside. Additionally, the Association of Program Directors in Surgery has matured as an organization and received much visibility as the seed organization represent- ing residency program directors in general surgery. As program directors, we all function within our individual systems and are subject to the policies that have been developed recently to minimize the potential influence of industry on our efforts. The Executive Committee of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery felt it necessary to codify and promote positive working relationships with industry and to clarify for its members what is appropriate collaboration. The Finance Committee of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery was tasked with developing an industry relations policy. The membership of this committee who are the authors of this man- uscript reviewed several different organizational policies and relevant peer reviewed literature to propose a policy to serve our constituency. 1-5 This was approved recently by the Executive Committee in April 2010 during Surgical Education Week in San Antonio, Texas. What follows is our Association of Pro- gram Directors in Surgery industry relations policy. As a component of the policy development, several principles were agreed on: 1. Transparency of relationships between the organization and industry is critical. 2. A disclosure by our leadership (including President-elect, President, and Immediate Past President) of any industry relationships would be necessary. 3. We would use the organizational web site to display these disclosures. 4. The Finance Committee will have a standing agenda item to review grants and requests from industry with subse- quent report to the Executive Committee for inclusion in the minutes of meetings. 5. The Association of Program Directors in Surgery would not have any exclusive relationships with industry. 6. An expanded bullet point format for the policy to keep it clear and concise would be favored. Overall, any collaboration between the Association of Program Directors in Surgery and the medical industry would be predi- Correspondence: Inquiries to Paula M. Termuhlen, MD, FACS, Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Avenue FWC, Room 3691 Milwau- kee, WI 53226; fax: (937) 208-2105; e-mail: ptermuhlen@mcw.edu Journal of Surgical Education • © 2011 Association of Program Directors in Surgery 1931-7204/$30.00 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2011.03.005 347