8  Editorial independence

8.1 Financing of the guideline

The guidelines and recommendations were drawn up financially independently.

8.2 Declaration of interests and handling of conflicts of interest

The information on interests was collected using the AWMF form from 2018 and evaluated by Monika Nothacker, Juliane Schemmer and Hanno Krafft as to its thematic connection to the guideline. Connections to professional associations and/or professional societies were categorized as a low conflict of interest, and connections to the media, advertising and/or entertainment electronics industry were categorized as a moderate/high conflict of interest. In the case of a thematic connection to the guideline, lectures for industry were rated as low, while consulting and expert activities/third-party funded research were rated as moderate, and ownership interests such as patents and activity mainly in the name of the industry as high. A moderate conflict of interest resulted in abstention. A high conflict of interest led to exclusion from the consultation and from voting on the topic in question. The following can be seen as protective factors that counteract distortion due to conflicts of interest: pluralistic composition of the guideline group, structured consensus-finding under neutral moderation, discussion on interests and dealing with conflicts of interest at the beginning of the consensus conference, and a public consultation version. As a result, no conflicts of interest with a thematic relevance to the guideline were identified for any member of the guideline group.