Shah Aakash K, Shah Isha K, Burkhart Robert J, Gould Heath P, Calcei Jacob G, Strickland Sabrina M, Voos James E
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
University Hospitals Drusinsky Sports Medicine Institute, Beachwood, Ohio, USA.
Orthop J Sports Med. 2025 Aug 22;13(8):23259671251343817. doi: 10.1177/23259671251343817. eCollection 2025 Aug.
The Physician Payments Sunshine Act mandated the public reporting of all industry payments above a $10 value that are disbursed to physicians in the United States. Understanding the pattern of research payments among sports medicine orthopaedic surgeons (SMOSs) may help uncover potential biases and conflicts of interest, thereby promoting transparency and ethical conduct in musculoskeletal research.
To identify trends in private research payment distribution among SMOSs and to explore potential sources of disparity in the disbursement of research-related private funding.
Cross-sectional study.
A cross-sectional analysis of the Open Payments Database was conducted between 2015 and 2021 to identify research payments disbursed to SMOSs. The -index, number of publications, and years since completion of residency/fellowship training were collected from Scopus and the affiliated institution profile. Descriptive statistics were conducted for payments at the individual surgeon level. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were utilized to assess the difference in median payment disbursement by surgeon sex. Nonparametric analyses were performed to identify predictors for payment.
During the study period, $81,268,687 in private research payments from 79 different industry companies was disbursed to 578 sports medicine surgeons at 397 different institutions. Sports medicine projects represented 23% of all orthopaedic payments, growing from 18% in 2015 to 26% in 2021. Male surgeons comprised 96% of all SMOSs receiving funding and collected 98% of the research payments. There was no statistically significant difference between the median male or female payment. However, the -index, number of publications, and number of years in practice were all significantly associated with greater median private research payment in a univariate quantile model. The -index and years out of training were positively associated with greater private research payment in the multivariate model.
There was no statistically significant difference in median payment to SMOSs between sexes. A higher -index and more years out of training were associated with receiving larger private research payments.
《医师薪酬阳光法案》要求公开披露在美国向医师支付的所有价值超过10美元的行业款项。了解运动医学骨科医生（SMOSs）的研究款项支付模式可能有助于发现潜在的偏见和利益冲突，从而促进肌肉骨骼研究的透明度和道德行为。
确定SMOSs中私人研究款项分配的趋势，并探讨研究相关私人资金分配中潜在的差异来源。
横断面研究。
对2015年至2021年的公开支付数据库进行横断面分析，以确定支付给SMOSs的研究款项。从Scopus和附属机构简介中收集h指数、出版物数量以及完成住院医师/专科培训后的年限。对个体外科医生层面的款项进行描述性统计。采用Wilcoxon秩和检验评估外科医生性别在支付中位数上的差异。进行非参数分析以确定支付的预测因素。
在研究期间，来自79家不同行业公司的81268687美元私人研究款项支付给了397家不同机构的578名运动医学外科医生。运动医学项目占所有骨科款项的23%，从2015年的18%增长到2021年的26%。男性外科医生占所有获得资助的SMOSs的96%，并收取了98%的研究款项。男性和女性支付中位数之间没有统计学上的显著差异。然而，在单变量分位数模型中，h指数、出版物数量和执业年限均与更高的私人研究款项中位数显著相关。在多变量模型中，h指数和培训后的年限与更高的私人研究款项呈正相关。
向SMOSs支付的中位数在性别之间没有统计学上的显著差异。较高的h指数和更长的培训后年限与获得更大的私人研究款项相关。
