Department of Medicine, John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America.
Neuroscience Institute, The Queen's Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Feb 7;14(2):e0211495. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211495. eCollection 2019.
Open Payments is a United States federal program mandating reporting of medical industry payments to physicians, increasing transparency of physician conflicts of interest (COI). Study objectives were to assess industry payments to physician-editors, and to compare their financial COI rate to all physicians within the specialty.
We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data, reviewing Open Payments from August 1, 2013 to December 31, 2016. We reviewed general payments ("… not made in connection with a research agreement") and research funding to "top tier" physician-editors of highly-cited medical journals. We compared payments to physician-editors and physicians-by-specialty. In 35 journals, 333 (74.5%) of 447 "top tier" US-based editors met inclusion criteria. Of these, 212 (63.7%) received industry-associated payments in the study period. In an average year, 141 (42.3%) of physician-editors received any direct payments to themselves including general payments and research payments, 66 (19.8%) received direct payments >$5,000 (National Institutes of Health threshold for a Significant Financial Interest) and 51 (15.3%) received >$10,000. Mean annual general payments to physician-editors was $55,157 (median 3,512, standard deviation 561,885, range 10-10,981,153). Median general payments to physician-editors were mostly higher compared to all physicians within their specialty. Mean annual direct research payment to the physician-editor was $14,558 (median 4,000, range 15-174,440). Mean annual indirect research funding to the physician-editor's institution (highly valued by academic leaders such as departmental chairs and deans) was $175,282 (median 49,107, range 0.18-5,000,000). The main study limitation was difficulty identifying physician-editors primarily responsible for making manuscript decisions.
A substantial minority of physician-editors receive payments from industry within any given year, sometimes quite large. Most editors received payment of some kind during the four-year study period. Given the extent of editors' influences on the medical literature, more robust and accessible editor financial COI declarations are recommended.
公开报酬是美国联邦计划要求报告医学行业向医生支付的款项，增加了医生利益冲突（COI）的透明度。研究目的是评估向医师编辑支付的行业报酬，并将其与该专业内的所有医生的财务 COI 率进行比较。
我们对前瞻性收集的数据进行了回顾性分析，审查了 2013 年 8 月 1 日至 2016 年 12 月 31 日的公开报酬。我们审查了一般报酬（“……不是与研究协议有关的付款”）和研究资金给高引用医学期刊的“顶级”医师编辑。我们比较了支付给医师编辑和专科医师的报酬。在 35 种期刊中，有 447 名“顶级”美国编辑中的 333 名（74.5％）符合纳入标准。在这些编辑中，有 212 名（63.7％）在研究期间收到了与行业相关的报酬。在平均一年中，有 141 名（42.3％）的医师编辑收到了任何直接支付给他们的款项，包括一般支付和研究支付，有 66 名（19.8％）收到了直接支付> 5,000 美元（美国国立卫生研究院的重大财务利益阈值），有 51 名（15.3％）收到了> 10,000 美元。医师编辑的年平均一般报酬为 55,157 美元（中位数为 3,512 美元，标准差为 561,885 美元，范围为 10-10,981,153 美元）。医师编辑的一般报酬中位数大多高于其专业内的所有医师。医师编辑的年度直接研究支付平均为 14,558 美元（中位数为 4,000 美元，范围为 15-174,440 美元）。医师编辑所在机构的年度间接研究资金平均为 175,282 美元（中位数为 49,107 美元，范围为 0.18-5,000,000 美元）。主要研究局限性是难以确定主要负责做出稿件决定的医师编辑。
在任何给定年份，都有相当一部分医师编辑从行业获得报酬，有时数额相当大。在四年的研究期间，大多数编辑都获得了某种形式的报酬。鉴于编辑对医学文献的影响程度，建议更加强大和可访问的编辑财务 COI 声明。
