All professionals have conflicts of interest. The real issue is whether these will lead, or have led, to bias, and if this bias will affect the study design, conduct of the study, data analysis or interpretation of the data.

Seeking to find people without a conflict of interest is foolish. It is more critical to assess their degree of bias, based on past publications, speeches and other information. Even having a pet theory to support often leads to bias in viewing scientific proposals or publications from others.

Data analysis and interpretation of data are two separate processes, even if they are conducted 30 milliseconds apart by a single person. Data analysis and statistical interpretation, however, is usually conducted by a statistician and clinical data interpretation by a scientist or clinician.

A clinician is the only one to determine clinical significance, while a statistician determines statistical significance. Of course, a clinician who is trained in statistics can also conduct statistical analyses and interpretations.