Durrani Idrys, Ji Yisi D, Peacock Zachary S
DMD Candidate, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA.
MD Candidate, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Oct;78(10):1669-1673. doi: 10.1016/j.joms.2020.03.010. Epub 2020 Mar 18.
The complete disclosure of conflicts of interest is critical to providing objective and ethical continuing education. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of the disclosed financial relationships by speakers at an annual oral and maxillofacial surgery conference.
This retrospective cross-sectional study compared speakers' disclosures on the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Dental Implant Conference 2018 website to the payments reported on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments Database. The predictor variable was the number of companies reported by the speakers. The outcome variable was the number of relevant companies discovered on the Open Payments Database. Other variables evaluated included total dollar sum transferred and the type of speaker (oral and maxillofacial surgeon (OMS) vs non-OMS). Companies providing payments to speakers on the Open Payments Database were deemed relevant if they had provided goods or services relevant to dental implants. Descriptive statistics were computed, and the Student t test was performed, with P < .05 considered to indicate statistical significance.
A total of 43 speakers were included (32 OMSs; 74.4%). We found that 35 of the 43 speakers (81.4%) had received payments relating to dental implants on the Open Payments Database that had not been disclosed on the conference website. On average, the speakers disclosed 0.65 ± 1.04 companies; however, 2.51 ± 1.32 relevant companies per speaker were reported on the Open Payments Database (P < .0001). The OMS speakersdisclosed 0.47 ± 0.95 company on the conference site but had 2.47 ± 1.32 companies reporting payments on the Open Payments Database (P < .0001). Non-OMS speakers disclosed 1.18 ± 1.17 companies, with 2.64 ± 1.36 companies listed on the Open Payments Database (P = .0044).
Continuing education conferences offer an avenue of knowledge transfer; however, the objectivity of the information presented could be affected by undisclosed conflicts of interest. The results from the present study have demonstrated that most speakers at an annual oral and maxillofacial surgery conference have underreported payments from companies relevant to the conference topic.
全面披露利益冲突对于提供客观且符合道德规范的继续医学教育至关重要。本研究的目的是确定在一次年度口腔颌面外科会议上，演讲者所披露的财务关系的准确性。
这项回顾性横断面研究将美国口腔颌面外科协会种植牙会议2018网站上演讲者的披露信息与医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心公开支付数据库中报告的付款情况进行了比较。预测变量是演讲者报告的公司数量。结果变量是在公开支付数据库中发现的相关公司数量。评估的其他变量包括转移的总金额以及演讲者类型（口腔颌面外科医生（OMS）与非OMS）。如果在公开支付数据库中向演讲者付款的公司提供了与种植牙相关的商品或服务，则这些公司被视为相关公司。计算了描述性统计数据，并进行了Student t检验，P <.05被认为具有统计学意义。
共纳入43名演讲者（32名OMS；74.4%）。我们发现，43名演讲者中有35名（81.4%）在公开支付数据库中收到了与种植牙相关的付款，但在会议网站上未披露。平均而言，演讲者披露了0.65±1.04家公司；然而，公开支付数据库中每位演讲者报告有2.51±1.32家相关公司（P <.0001）。OMS演讲者在会议现场披露了0.47±0.95家公司，但在公开支付数据库中有2.47±1.32家公司报告了付款情况（P <.0001）。非OMS演讲者披露了1.18±1.17家公司，公开支付数据库中列出了2.64±1.36家公司（P =.0044）。
继续医学教育会议提供了知识转移的途径；然而，所呈现信息的客观性可能会受到未披露的利益冲突的影响。本研究结果表明，在一次年度口腔颌面外科会议上，大多数演讲者少报了与会议主题相关公司的付款情况。
