Abstract
Objective
To identify whether institutions with strong conflicts of interest (COI) policies
receive less industry payments than those with weaker policies. While industry-physician
interactions can have collaborative benefits, financial COI can undermine preservation
of the integrity of professional judgment and public trust. To address this concern,
academic institutions have adopted COI policies. It is unclear whether the strength
of COI policy correlates with industry payments in urology.
Materials and Methods
131 US academic urology programs were surveyed on their COI policies, and graded according
to the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) criteria. Strength of COI policy
was compared against industry payments in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Open Payments database.
Results
Fifty-seven programs responded to the survey, for a total response rate of 44%. There
was no difference between COI policy groups on total hospital payments (P = .05), total department payments (P = .28), or dollars per payment (P = .57). On correlation analysis, there was a weak but statistically nonsignificant
correlation between AMSA Industry Policy Survey Score and Open Payments payments (ρ = −0.14,
P = .32).
Conclusion
Strength of conflicts of interest policy in academic urology did not correlate to
industry payments within the Open Payments database. Establishment of strong COI policy
may create offsetting factors that mitigate the intended effects of the policy. Further
studies will be required to develop the evidence base for policy design and implementation
across various specialties.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: March 09, 2020
Accepted:
February 27,
2020
Received:
December 1,
2019
Footnotes
Contributors: There were no contributors to this manuscript who are not listed authors.
Funders: None.
Prior Presentations: This study was presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Section of the American Urological Association on September 20, 2019 in Syracuse, NY.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
