Contracts & Outside Activities

Faculty and staff entering into outside activities or employment arrangements may be asked to sign documents on a personal basis. These personal contracts/personal agreements need to be reviewed by the COI Office for completeness and permissibilty. The COI Office is available to review pending agreements for future activities, in addition to reviewing agreements for ongoing activities.

Personal Agreements with international (non-US) entities/companies must be provided to the COI Office as part of the COI Statement of Financial Interest or via email, be in English, and be determined to be complete and permissible.

All agreements between UT Southwestern employees and outside entities must contain:

  1. The UTSW Uniform Terms and Conditions. This must be attached to the agreement (not incorporated into the body of the agreement), with no modifications, and can be found here.
  2. The Inclusion Paragraph, which consists of the following language in the body of the agreement:
    • Attached to this Agreement are the uniform consulting agreement terms and conditions required for approval of this activity by UT Southwestern Medical Center (the “Uniform Terms and Conditions”). The parties agree that the Uniform Terms and Conditions are an integral part of this Agreement, and this Agreement shall have no force or effect unless these Uniform Terms and Conditions are signed by both parties. In the event there is any conflict between this Agreement and the Uniform Terms and Conditions, the Uniform Terms and Conditions shall govern.
  3. The Scope of Work (SOW) for the contract, often included in an appendix or addendum.

Please utilize the Contracts & Personal Agreements Tip Sheet for more information.

Promotional Speaking

Participation in the following activities is not permitted: Marketing and training programs designed solely or predominantly for sales, marketing, or promotional purposes. This includes Industry-sponsored speaking engagements typically referred to as “speakers bureaus” (i.e., contractual relationships to give talks in which the topic(s) and/or content are provided by the company) that are solely or predominately promotional in nature.

Individuals must retain full control and authority over any professional materials they present. Such communications or presentations may not be subject to approval by any commercial interest other than approval for the use of proprietary information.

Presentations must follow ACCME Guidelines, as applicable. All branded presentations, including those that are sometimes described as “disease awareness or disease state” are included in UT Southwestern's definition of promotional speaking. The adherence of any speaking program to U.S. FDA requirements is not taken into consideration by UT Southwestern when categorizing an activity as promotional speaking.

NOTE: If the speaking engagement is scholarly, scientific, or academic in nature (e.g. health related presentation to AHA), it is permissible even if it is contractually referred to as a “speakers bureau.”

Please utilize this checklist for guidance in determining whether UTSW may consider your activity to be Promotional Speaking.