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Academic Emergency Medicine Faculty and Industry Relationships
Author(s) -
Birkhahn Robert H.,
Blomkalns Andra L.,
Klausner Howard A.,
Nowak Richard M.,
Raja Ali S.,
Summers Richard L.,
Weber Jim E.,
Briggs William M.,
Arkun Alp,
Diercks Deborah
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2008.00196.x
Subject(s) - medicine , descriptive statistics , logistic regression , odds , family medicine , rank (graph theory) , odds ratio , payment , medical education , statistics , mathematics , combinatorics , world wide web , computer science
Objectives: The authors surveyed the membership of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) about their associations with industry and predictors of those associations. Methods: A national Web‐based survey inviting faculty from the active member list of SAEM was conducted. Follow‐up requests for participation were sent weekly for 3 weeks. Information was collected on respondents’ personal and practice characteristics, industry interactions, and personal opinions regarding these interactions. Raw response rates were reported and a logistic regression was used to generate descriptive statistics. Results: Responses were received from 430 members, representing 14% of the 3,183 active members. Respondents were 83% male and 86% white, with 96% holding an MD degree (24% with an additional postdoctoral degree). Most were at the assistant (37%) or associate (25%) professor rank, with 51% holding at least one leadership position. Most respondents (82%) reported some type of industry interaction, most commonly the acceptance of food or beverages (67%). Respondents at the associate professor rank or higher were more likely to receive payments from industry (51% vs. 22%, odds ratio [OR] = 3.7). Conclusions: This survey suggests that interactions between industry and academic EM faculty are common and increase with academic rank, but not with years in practice or leadership influence. The number and type of interactions are consistent with those reported by a national sampling of other physician specialties.