Institute for Research on Musculoskeletal Disorders, Valencia Catholic University, Valencia, Spain.
Department of Surgery, Valencia University School of Medicine, Valencia, Spain.
PLoS One. 2018 Oct 11;13(10):e0204993. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204993. eCollection 2018.
Conflicts of interest (COI) between industry and surgeons frequently introduce biases into surgical research. The abstracts submitted for presentation in scientific congresses are usually vetted for any indication of commercial bias. Members of review program committees regularly have recognized qualifications, and therefore certain COI are unavoidable. This study aims to determine the prevalence and magnitude of possible COI among those responsible for the selection of presentations at two important international conferences on spine surgery during a five-year period.
COI declarations by those responsible for the final programs of the annual SRS (Scoliosis Research Society) and IMAST (International Meeting of Advanced Spine Technologies) conferences from 2010 to 2014 were collected and analyzed from data published by the corresponding scientific programs. The SRS's disclosure index did not contain financial amounts; therefore, this aspect could not be analyzed.
Five scientific committees and 117 members (76 individuals) were studied. Of these 76, 41 (53.9%) participated in more than one conflict of interest (>1 COI). Scientific committee members were from 11 countries across 4 continents, but most were from the Unites States (76.9%). Of the 117 program reviewers, 65.8% declared >1 COI and 34.2% reported no COI. The 77 program reviewers who disclosed a potential COI declared a total of 273 COI (mean = 3.54 COI/member). Overall, 36.0%, 26.1%, 10.7%, and 10.7% of the COI corresponded to consultancies, research funds, bureau participation, and advisory board panel participation, respectively. Stockholder reimbursement corresponded to 8.8% of the disclosed COI, and financial or material support were mentioned in 7.4% of COI. Among the COI disclosures, 55 companies were mentioned, and 5 of the top 10 companies involved in spinal device markets were responsible for 65.2% of the COI.
More than two thirds of the members of the SRS and IMAST scientific committees reported COI. Consultancies and research grants account for two thirds of these. Most of the grants and major COI are related to the five companies leading the spinal implant market.
工业界和外科医生之间的利益冲突经常会给外科研究带来偏见。提交科学大会的摘要通常会审查是否存在商业偏见的迹象。审查计划委员会的成员通常都有公认的资格，因此某些利益冲突是不可避免的。本研究旨在确定在五年期间负责选择脊柱外科两个重要国际会议演讲的人员中潜在利益冲突的发生率和程度。
从相应的科学计划公布的数据中收集并分析了 2010 年至 2014 年期间 SRS（脊柱研究学会）和 IMAST（高级脊柱技术国际会议）年度会议最终计划负责人的利益冲突声明。SRS 的披露指数不包含财务金额，因此无法对此进行分析。
研究了五个科学委员会和 117 名成员（76 人）。其中 41 人（53.9%）参与了不止一次利益冲突（>1 次 COI）。科学委员会成员来自四大洲的 11 个国家，但大多数来自美国（76.9%）。在 117 名项目评审员中，65.8%的人声明有>1 次利益冲突，34.2%的人没有利益冲突。披露潜在利益冲突的 77 名项目评审员共申报了 273 项利益冲突（平均每人 3.54 项）。总体而言，36.0%、26.1%、10.7%和 10.7%的利益冲突分别对应咨询、研究基金、局参与和顾问委员会参与。股票持有人报销占披露利益冲突的 8.8%，7.4%的利益冲突提到了财务或物质支持。在利益冲突披露中，提到了 55 家公司，涉及脊柱设备市场的前 10 家公司中的 5 家占利益冲突的 65.2%。
SRS 和 IMAST 科学委员会的三分之二以上成员报告了利益冲突。咨询和研究赠款占这些的三分之二。这些赠款和主要利益冲突与领导脊柱植入物市场的五家公司有关。
