The BMJ establishes an independent panel to review statin articles

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An independent panel has now been established to review two articles published in The BMJ by John Abramson and colleagues and Aseem Malhotra. Last week, the authors withdrew a statement in their articles about the side effects of statins after it was found to be incorrect.

The draft terms of reference and membership of the panel are now available on bmj.com.

The panel will be chaired by Iona Heath, former chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners and of The BMJ’s ethics committee, and will have six other members:

Stephen Evans, professor of pharamcoepidemiology at the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine

Curt Furberg, professor emeritus of public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, North Carolina

Julia Hippisley-Cox, professor of epidemiology and general practice at the University of Nottingham

Harlan Krumholz, Harold H. Hines Jr. professor of medicine (cardiology) and professor of investigative medicine and of public health (health policy) at Yale School of Medicine

Cynthia Mulrow, senior deputy editor at Annals of Internal Medicine and adjunct professor of medicine at Texas University of Health Science Center

Paul Wilks, vice president of innovation, Patients Like Me

The panel’s remit will be to consider whether either or both articles should be retracted and to review and comment on the process by which the articles were published. The panel will also review and comment on how criticisms and complaints against the articles were raised, and how the journal responded.

The panel will then make recommendations to The BMJ's editor in chief in a report by 31 July 2014 that will be published on bmj.com.

To ensure full accountability and transparency, all submissions to the panel and all documents used by the panel will be placed in the public domain on bmj.com, either at the time of submission or as part of the panel's final report.

Panel members and all those submitting information to the panel will also make full declarations of their interests, which will also be published on bmj.com.

Read full details here: http://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/independent-statins-review-panel.

To comment on the draft please email jsmith@bmj.com by Friday 23 May 2014