Evaluation of financial relationships between Japanese certified pediatric hematologist/oncologists and pharmaceutical companies: a cross‐sectional analysis of personal payments from pharmaceutical companies between 2016 and 2019

Abstract

This cross-sectional study evaluated the magnitude of personal payments made by pharmaceutical companies to pediatric hematologist-oncologists (PHOs) boardcertified by the Japanese Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (JSPHO), using publicly disclosed data. Among all 307 PHOs, 215 (70.

Pharmaceutical money to Japanese board-certified dermatologists: A four-year retrospective analysis of personal payments from pharmaceutical companies between 2016 and 2019

“…11 Additionally, the trends in annual personal payments to dermatologists were examined by population-averaged generalized estimating equation (GEE) models with panel-data of payments clustering each dermatologist between 2016 and 2019. 5,6 The log-linked linear GEE model with Poisson distribution for the number of dermatologists receiving payments and negative binomial regression GEE model for the per-dermatologist payments were applied, as the payments were highly skewed. The payment year, gender, whether a dermatologists had board-certi cation in dermatology-oncology or cosmetic dermatology, and practicing regions were set as independent variables, and the number of dermatologists receiving payments and per-dermatologist payment values were set as dependent variables, respectively.…”

“…17 Additionally, per-physician payments to dermatologists were also one of the lowest in Japan, followed by pediatric oncologists. [4][5][6]8 The reason for this lower payments may be explained by our limitation in data collection. We included only payments for lecturing, consulting, and writing purposes, and could not collect payments for more prevalent categories such as meals, travel and accommodations, and educations, which were widely made to dermatologists in the United States.…”

“…Compensation for lecturing, consulting and writing was generally targeted at physicians with extensive clinical or research experience, typically physicians working in universities or general hospitals. 6,16,22 According to a survey by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare in 2020, 60.3% of dermatologists worked in clinics and hospitals with less than 20 inpatient beds in Japan. 23 Considering this nature, we may have underestimated the whole dermatologist-industry nancial relationships in Japan.…”

“…De nitions of payment categories were described previously. 5,6 We collected payment data from all 92 pharmaceutical companies belonging to the JPMA to the board-certi ed dermatologists between 2016 and 2019, sorting by dermatologists' names, as described previously. 8,12,16 The payments in 2019 were the latest analyzable payment data as of August 2022.…”

“…3 Due to this payment disclosure, we previously reported there were substantial and prevalent nancial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and physicians in several specialties including oncology, hematology, pediatrics, infectious diseases, and pulmonology in Japan. [4][5][6][7][8] These personal payments were often made to physicians in authoritative and in uential positions such as clinical practice guideline authors, 6,[9][10][11][12] society board members, 6,13 university professors, 6,8,14 and television expert commentators. 15 We also found that there was a pattern in recipient of personal payments by factors such as gender and regions.…”