Profession
ACOG: Doctors should disclose financial ties, pros, cons on cord-blood banking
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 3, 2008
Physicians should tell their pregnant patients about the advantages and disadvantages of private and public cord-blood banking, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said in revising its opinion on the issue in February. Doctors also should disclose any financial conflicts when recommending for-profit cord-blood banking to patients, ACOG said.
Public cord-blood banks are free and could be more useful because the potentially life-saving stem cells contained in cord blood would be available to any patient, not just the family that paid for the banking, as is the case with private cord-blood banks, according to the opinion. ACOG added that physicians should tell patients that estimates on the likelihood of banked cord blood being used to help the child or another family member later are unreliable, ranging from 1 in 2,700 to even lower rates.
The newly revised ACOG opinion, in the February Obstetrics & Gynecology, is similar to ethical policy adopted by the American Medical Association House of Delegates at its November 2007 Interim Meeting.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/03/03/prbf0303.htm.
