The concern of other medical professionals and the public regarding the role that an author's potential conflict of interest plays in his or her reports of medical research continues unabated. Although essentially all medical journals have required some type of disclosure of potential conflicts of interest from their authors, the format of that disclosure has been inconsistent among journals. While the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is widely accepted as being necessary, debate continues on how to best use this disclosure information, an issue that continues to confound readers as well as journal reviewers and editors. Despite this debate, it remains essential that an author disclose potential conflicts of interest. As exemplified by the recent interest of the lay press in the use or overuse of growth factors in spinal surgery, the issue of orthopaedic surgeons having industry-related conflicts of interest that could potentially affect the scientific reports that are used to …