Differences in Financial Conflicts of Interest Among Participants in a National Spine Conference

Christopher Lucasti; Emily K Vallee; Maxwell M Scott; Seth C Baker; Ashtah A Das; Dil V Patel

doi:10.1177/21925682231168578

Differences in Financial Conflicts of Interest Among Participants in a National Spine Conference

Global Spine J. 2023 Apr 3:21925682231168578. doi: 10.1177/21925682231168578. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Christopher Lucasti¹, Emily K Vallee², Maxwell M Scott², Seth C Baker², Ashtah A Das², Dil V Patel¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopaedics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
² Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.

PMID: 37010029
DOI: 10.1177/21925682231168578

Abstract

Study: Retrospective Study.

Objective: At the North American Spine Society (NASS) conference, participants may influence spine surgery practices and patient care through their contributions. Therefore, their financial conflicts of interest are of notable interest. This study aims to compare the demographics and payments made to participating surgeons.

Methods: A list of 151 spine surgeons was created based on those who participated in the 2022 NASS conference. Demographic information was obtained from public physician profiles. General payments, research payments, associated research funding, and ownership interest were collected for each physician. Descriptive statistics and two-tailed t-tests were used.

Results: In 2021, 151 spine surgeon participants received industry payments, totaling USD 48 294 115. The top 10% of orthopedic surgeons receiving payments accounted for 58.7% of total orthopedic general value, while the top 10% of neurosurgeons accounted for 70.1%. There was no significant difference between these groups' general payment amounts. Surgeons with 21-30 years of experience received the most general funding. There was no difference in funding between surgeons in academic or private settings. For all surgeons, royalties accounted for the largest percentage of the general value exchanged, while food/beverage accounted for the largest percentage of transactions.

Conclusions: Our study found that only years of experience had a positive association with general payments, and most monetary value belonged to a small handful of surgeons. These participants receiving significant money may promote techniques requiring products of companies providing their compensation. Future conferences may require disclosure policy changes so attendees understand the degree of funding participants receive.

Keywords: Conflict of interest; disclosure/statistics & numerical data; manufacturing industry/economics; medicine; neurosurgeons/economics; orthopaedic; patient protection and affordable care act/legislation & jurisprudence; retrospective studies.