Department of Radiation Oncology, Penn State Cancer Institute, Hershey, Pennsylvania; Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida.
J Am Coll Radiol. 2019 Feb;16(2):244-251. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2018.07.024. Epub 2018 Sep 13.
Industry payments to physicians are financial conflicts of interest and may influence research findings and medical decisions. We aim to (1) characterize industry payments within radiation oncology; and (2) explore the potential correlation between receiving disclosed industry payments and academic productivity.
MATERIALS/METHODS: CMS database was used to extract 2015 industry payments. For academic radiation oncologists, research productivity was characterized by h- and m-indices, as well as receipt of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, which is not an industry payment. Logistic regression models were used to determine whether publication metrics (m-index, h-index) and other study characteristics such as gender, PhD status, NIH institution funding status, were associated with the endpoints, research and general payments. Associations between the amount of payments (if any) and publication metrics were further studied using linear regression models.
A total of 22,543 individual payments totaling $25,532,482 to 2,995 radiation oncologists were included. Among the 1,189 academic radiation oncologists, 75% received less than $167; on the other hand, 10 (<1%) individuals received $6,425,728 (51%) of payments. On multiple logistic regression, research payments were significantly associated with the m-index, odds ratio 2.86 (95% confidence interval, 1.84-4.45, p-value <0.0001); as well as with the h-index, odds ratio 1.03 (95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.05, p-value <0.0001). The linear regression model shows that both m-index and h-index were significantly positively associated with the amount of general payments (p-values <0.0001).
There is an association between disclosed payment from the industry and increased individual research productivity metrics. Further research to find the cause behind this association is warranted.
向医生支付的款项是财务利益冲突，可能会影响研究结果和医疗决策。我们的目标是：(1)描述放射肿瘤学领域的行业支付情况；(2)探索接受披露的行业支付与学术生产力之间的潜在相关性。
材料/方法：CMS 数据库用于提取 2015 年的行业支付。对于学术放射肿瘤学家，研究生产力的特征是 h-和 m-指数，以及获得美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 的资助，这不是行业支付。使用逻辑回归模型来确定出版指标（m-指数、h-指数）和其他研究特征（如性别、博士学位、NIH 机构资助状态）是否与研究和一般支付的终点相关。使用线性回归模型进一步研究了支付金额（如果有）与出版指标之间的关系。
共包括 22543 项支付给 2995 名放射肿瘤学家的个人支付，总额为 25532482 美元。在 1189 名学术放射肿瘤学家中，75%的人收到的款项少于 167 美元；另一方面，有 10 人（不到 1%）收到了 6425728 美元（占 51%）的款项。在多项逻辑回归中，研究支付与 m 指数显著相关，比值比为 2.86（95%置信区间，1.84-4.45，p 值 <0.0001）；与 h 指数显著相关，比值比为 1.03（95%置信区间，1.01-1.05，p 值 <0.0001）。线性回归模型显示，m 指数和 h 指数与一般支付金额呈显著正相关（p 值 <0.0001）。
行业披露的支付与个人研究生产力指标的增加之间存在关联。需要进一步研究以找到这种关联的原因。
