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Evaluation of Financial Conflicts of Interest Among Physician‐Authors of American College of Rheumatology Clinical Practice Guidelines
Author(s) -
Wayant Cole,
Walters Corbin,
Zaaza Zachary,
Gilstrap Carrie,
Combs Tyler,
Crow Hanna,
Vassar Matt
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
arthritis and rheumatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.106
H-Index - 314
eISSN - 2326-5205
pISSN - 2326-5191
DOI - 10.1002/art.41224
Subject(s) - payment , medicine , interquartile range , conflict of interest , family medicine , clinical practice , actuarial science , finance , accounting , business
Objective Clinical practice guidelines ( CPG s) underpin patient care, and ideally authors of these guidelines would be free from outside influence. However, it has been shown many times that authors of professional society CPG s receive large sums of money from industry drug companies, creating financial conflicts of interest. This study investigated industry payments catalogued in the Open Payments Database ( OPD ) that have been received by authors of the American College of Rheumatology ( ACR ) CPG s. Methods Guidelines on the ACR web site that were published during or after August 2014 were used to retrieve the list of authors. All general, research, associated research, and ownership payments reported on the OPD between the date of publication of the CPG and 12 months prior were extracted in a parallel and blinded manner by 2 investigators. Results Of the 89 US ‐based physician‐authors from the 5 ACR CPG s identified within the study timeframe, 56 (62.9%) had received at least 1 payment according to OPD records. These 56 authors had received a median of $522 (interquartile range $119–2,500), which, combined, was a total of $9,728,751. Nineteen authors had received at least 1 industry payment relevant to the CPG recommendations, for a median amount of $748 and a total of $1,961,362 in relevant payments. Of the total relevant payments received, a significant proportion was undisclosed (for ACR CPG s during or after August 2014, undisclosed payments were $699,561, or 35.7% of the total). Conclusion Fewer than one‐half of the US ‐based physician‐authors of ACR CPG s during or after August 2014 had received guideline‐relevant industry payments. Nonetheless, a substantial proportion of the money received was not disclosed. Conflict of interest disclosure is a bare minimum requirement, and more permanent solutions may include divestiture or inclusion of more nonconflicted authors.