Association between Industry Payments and Scholarly Impact among Academic Ophthalmologists

Abstract

Purpose The aim of this article is to examine the association between industry payments to ophthalmologists and scholarly impact. Design Retrospective cross-sectional study. Methods All ophthalmology faculty at United States accredited ophthalmology residency programs were included in this study. The main exposure was industry payments to ophthalmologists in 2016, as reported in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments Database. The primary outcome was Hirsch index (H-index), a measure of scholarly impact. Results Among 1,653 academic ophthalmologists in our study, 1,225 (74%) received industry payments in 2016. We did not observe a difference between the mean H-index of ophthalmologists receiving any industry payments versus those not receiving any payments (p = 0.68). In analysis including only ophthalmologists who received industry payments, H-index differed significantly by payment amount: 12.6 for ophthalmologists receiving less than $100, 12.2 for those receiving $100 to 1,000, 18.8 for those receiving $1,000 to 10,000, 21.3 for those receiving $10,000 to 100,000, and 29.4 for those receiving greater than $100,000 (p < 0.001). Within each academic rank and gender, industry payments greater than $1,000 were associated with a higher H-index (p < 0.05). Conclusions Although our analysis cannot prove causality, we observed a significant association between industry payments and scholarly impact among academic ophthalmologists, even after adjusting for gender, academic rank, and subspecialty. Prospective studies should further evaluate this relationship.

Financial conflicts of interest of physicians followed by neurosurgical journals on Twitter

“…Third, FCOIs may influence academia and authors of academic publications as there is an association with increased academic productivity 19,20 and impact 21 . An analysis of 435 authors of haematology and oncology papers in the top 3 general medical (e.g., New England Journal of Medicine ) and oncology journals (e.g., The Lancet Oncology ) found that for every $10,000 in general payments received from the pharmaceutical industry by an author, there was an associated increase of 1.99 more papers published 22 .…”

“…18 Third, FCOIs may influence academia and authors of academic publications as there is an association with increased academic productivity 19,20 and impact. 21 An analysis of 435 authors of haematology and oncology papers in the top 3 general medical (e.g., New England Journal of Medicine) and oncology journals (e.g., The Lancet Oncology)…”

Characterizing industry payments to ophthalmologists before and after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Given this influence, this study aims to understand what differences, if any, exist for industry payments to ophthalmologists before and after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several prior publications have used the Open Payments Database to address industry payments to ophthalmologists, and we look to specifically analyzed any changes in industry payments to ophthalmologists before and after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic made possible by the availability of 2021 data [ 4 , 7 , 14 – 16 ]. This study additionally serves as an update on general research payment trends to ophthalmologists.…”