Sunita Sah

Deep Professionalism: Charting a Path for Effective Conflict-of-Interest Management in Medicine

Journal Publication /

Conflicts of interest (COIs) threaten the integrity of the medical field due to their capacity to compromise patient trust and healthcare quality. They deserve continued scrutiny but proposed policies to address COIs—ranging from penalties to mandated disclosures—often rest on misguided intuitions about the underlying psychological processes, leading to ineffective or even counterproductive outcomes.  The shortcomings […]

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The paradox of disclosure: shifting policies from revealing to resolving conflicts of interest

Journal Publication /

This paper explores the complexities and unintended consequences of conflict of interest (COI) disclosures in various professional settings. It highlights key psychological processes encountered by recipients of such disclosures. Notably, it describes the burden of disclosure effect, which paradoxically reduces trust while increasing compliance due to social pressures, and disclosure’s expertise cue, where disclosures inadvertently increase trust and

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Lessons from COVID-19 for behavioural and communication interventions to enhance vaccine uptake.

Journal Publication /

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is widely considered to be over, vaccination remains the crucial tool to protect people from severe disease. Notwithstanding adequate supply, vaccine uptake varies considerably among countries and segments of society. For example, as of 30 June 2023, uptake of the primary course of vaccines in Europe ranged from 21.1% in Kyrgyzstan

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Most people believe they don’t see color–but only empirically proven ‘blinding’ policies can reduce discrimination in the labor market and criminal justice system

Popular Press /

Justice is supposed to be blind, rendered without passion or prejudice, but women and people of color are being discriminated against by the systematic lack of “blinding”–the removal of irrelevant details such as a person’s name, race, and gender–in both the criminal justice system and the labor market. As a college professor who routinely anonymizes

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Science communication as a collective intelligence endeavor: A manifesto and examples for implementation.

Journal Publication /

Effective science communication is challenging when scientific messages are informed by a continually updating evidence base and must often compete against misinformation. We argue that we need a new program of science communication as collective intelligence—a collaborative approach, supported by technology. This would have four key advantages over the typical model where scientists communicate as

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Author Interview: “How Should the US Federal Government Oversee Clinicians’ Relationships With Industry?”

Web /

Following the publication of my article How Should The Us Federal Government Oversee Clinicians’ Relationships With Industry? in the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics, I was featured on their Author Interview podcast series. On the podcast I discuss with host Tim Hoff how my theory of the Professionalism Paradox applies in the medical field and

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How should the US Federal Government oversee clinicians’ relationships with industry?

Journal Publication /

Abstract Many clinicians, including those who work in government, experience potential clashes between their professional responsibilities and personal interests that can create conflicts of interest (COIs). Some clinicians might assert that their personal stakes do not influence their professional actions, but data suggest otherwise. This commentary on a case suggests that COIs must be acknowledged

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For Justice, Forensic Science Must Be Scientific: The Case Of Kevin Keith

Forbes Column, Popular Press /

I was recently interview on Kim Kardashian’s podcast The System to discuss the case of Kevin Keith who was sentenced to death in 1994 based on what appears to be heavily flawed forensic evidence. The case highlights many of the flaws inherent in the current practice of Forensic Sciences. In this Forbes article, I argue that

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