After an 11-month investigation prompted by an expert's simultaneous roles as a researcher, a journal editor and a consultant in breast implant lawsuits, a Harvard-affiliated hospital is putting strict limits on doctors' right to testify in court.

The new rules will apply to doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Doctors who want to be expert witnesses or paid advisers to attorneys will have to ask permission in writing from their department chiefs, who will decide whether the doctors have a conflict of interest.Hospital officials said Wednesday the new rules will probably take effect in the next two months after formal review. At the hospital's request, Harvard Medical School also is revising its policy to require professors to list legal consulting work on their annual financial disclosure statements.

"The faculty council of Harvard Medical School voted to accept this clarification in order to hopefully avoid similar situations where the overlapping activities of faculty could create the appearance of possible conflict of interests," said a school spokeswoman.

The investigation began after an Associated Press story last December revealed the multiple roles of Dr. Peter Schur, a Brigham and Women's rheumatologist, in the breast-implant controversy.

As a $300-an-hour consultant and expert witness, Schur worked for law firms defending silicone implant makers in lawsuits brought by women. At about the same time, he edited the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism and published his own article defending implants' safety.

After the AP article appeared, Dr. Matthew Liang of Brigham and Women's, an associate editor at Arthritis & Rheumatism, acknowledged that he, too, had worked for the manufacturers' law firms. Both doctors then resigned from a Harvard implant study sponsored by Dow Corning Corp., the largest defendant in the implant suits.

Dr. George Thibault, Brigham and Women's chief medical officer, said a committee concluded that Schur and Liang had not violated any explicit hospital policy. Nor did the committee find any evidence of biased research.

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