Background: Industry funding and trial researchers’ financial conflicts of interest are common in clinical trials and are associated with favourable trial conclusions and seemingly greater treatment effects. Information on funding and conflicts of interest is therefore considered important when interpreting trial findings. The Cochrane Handbook includes a section on conflicts of interest based on the concepts behind a new Tool for Addressing Conflicts of Interest in Trials (TACIT) to be used in the context of systematic reviews, e.g., Cochrane Reviews. TACIT provides a framework for collecting funding and conflicts of interest information for a trial in order to reach a judgement on whether there is notable concern about conflicts of interest affecting the design, conduct, analysis or reporting of the trial, and the sufficiency of information this assessment is based on.
Objectives: To introduce participants to the concepts behind TACIT and provide practical experience with the tool.
Description: The workshop will consist of two parts.1) Introduction: The empirical basis and the background behind the development of TACIT will be briefly presented, and we will introduce the tool framework and key concepts. 2) Using TACIT: Through a practical exercise in small groups the participants will be introduced to the tool. Participants will be guided in the usage of TACIT from retrieving funding and conflicts of interest information to judging whether a trial has notable concern about conflicts of interest and the sufficiency of information available for this assessment. In plenary, we will discuss the assessments by the individual groups and how information from TACIT may further inform Cochrane Review data analysis and interpretation of results. Participants may bring a laptop to assist them in the exercise, but it is not necessary for participation. See www.tacit.one for further information about the tool.