Anytime that oversight vacuums and taxpayer dollars come together, questions of whether conflicts of interest are involved always arise. Recently, United States Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote a letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requesting that they clarify the employment status of Dr. Marvin Konstam, who has been working as a senior adviser to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) while simultaneously retaining his positions at Tufts Medical Center and Orqis, a private medical device company. It is too early to pass judgment, but in the meantime, we support Grassley's efforts to get to the bottom of the situation.
At issue here is whether Konstam has been serving as a full-time employee of the NIH, since the institutes' regulations prohibit such workers from retaining financial interests with private industries. Grassley is concerned that the NIH has been trying to find a loophole by designating full-time employees as contractors to avoid scrutiny.
With any relationship potentially involving conflicts of interest, justice should be enforced. And Grassley is a veteran senator who has successfully performed many investigations in the past: In June, he caught three Harvard Medical School researchers for failing to properly disclose drug industry payments.
While job statuses may seem mundane, the larger question is whether scientific advisers working with public funds should also have related private interests. On one hand, it is admirable that people like Konstam want to take on several projects at once, but on the other, at least symbolically, the potential for abuse looms.
As of now, the NHLBI, which is part of the NIH, and Konstam are working with Grassley to address all his questions and concerns, and we applaud this cooperation. Also, an NHLBI spokesperson has told the Daily that Konstam's position actually precludes him from making funding decisions.
Additionally, Konstam informed the NHLBI, Orqis and Tufts of all his external activities upon starting with the NIH. But while Konstam might have done everything he could to make the process transparent, the investigation is less about his motivations than the larger oversight vacuum.
Konstam is currently listed as a senior adviser at the NHLBI. If this means that he is not officially a full-time employee of the NIH, then everything will proceed normally.
However, if Konstam actually is a full-time worker, then he is violating regulations and he should dedicate himself either to entirely private or exclusively public pursuits. Either way, Grassley's investigation should continue to completion, because if it doesn't, any loopholes that exist may not be closed.
All in all, Grassley's efforts have sound foundations. Especially given that a lack of government regulation has contributed to one of the biggest economic downturns in U.S. history, it is important for our elected officials to do their jobs and point out when the system is being abused. It is still too early to say whether NIH and Konstam are actually guilty, but the time is ripe to at least set the record straight on their actual relationship.
