Abstract
Background
With reductions in public funding, alternate research funding is essential to surgical oncologists (SOs). We aimed to examine current trends in industry funding of SOs.
Methods
Society of Surgical Oncology surgeons were identified and matched with board certification and years in practice. Departmental and hospital data were evaluated, and industry payments from 2013 to 2017 were matched with the Open Payment Data.
Results
Of the 1670 SOs identified, 922 (55%) had academic positions: 588 (64%) males and 334 (36%) females. Between 2013 and 2017, research payments totaling $46,596,706 were made to 162 SOs (17.5%): $40,774,716 (87%) for research related to drugs and clinical trials, compared with $5,194,199 (11%) for surgical devices (p = 0.018). Funding correlated with academic leadership and years in practice (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0037). Massachusetts ($9,060,976), Texas ($7,656,228), and New York ($4,210,864) received the most funding, whereas Utah ($1,533,166/SO), Massachusetts ($1,294,425/SO), and Oregon ($1,241,702/SO) received the highest average payments per SO. The majority of funding was from Novartis ($16,045,608), Amgen ($6,810,832), and Merck ($3,758,299), for an oncolytic vaccine (talimogene laherparepvec, $5,939,007), a BRAF inhibitor (dabrafenib, $5,727,309), and a KIT inhibitor (imatinib, $4,323,586). Male SOs received funding more frequently than females (120/588 [20%] vs. 42/334 [12.6%]; p = 0.0027). Males also received more general payments (travel/lodging, food/beverage, consulting/speaker fees): $48,830 vs. $11,867 per male and female, respectively (p = 0.0001).
Conclusions
The majority of industry research payments to SOs are related to novel pharmaceuticals, which highlights the expanding influence SOs play in systemic therapies. Industry payments are influenced by location, gender, and academic leadership.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
FASEB. NIH Research Funding Trends. Available at: http://www.faseb.org/Science-Policy–Advocacy-and-Communications/Federal-Funding-Data/NIH-Research-Funding-Trends.aspx. Accessed Dec 2018.
Keswani SG, Moles CM, Morowitz M, et al. The future of basic science in academic surgery: identifying barriers to success for surgeon-scientists. Ann. Surg. 2017;265(6):1053–1059.
Kibbe MR, Velazquez OC. The extinction of the surgeon scientist. Ann. Surg. 2017;265(6):1060–1061.
More surgeons must start doing basic science. Nature. 2017;544(7651):393–394. https://www.nature.com/news/more-surgeons-must-start-doing-basic-science-1.21874.
Galkina Cleary E, Beierlein JM, Khanuja NS, McNamee LM, Ledley FD. Contribution of NIH funding to new drug approvals 2010–2016. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2018;115(10):2329–2334.
Ehrhardt S, Appel LJ, Meinert CL. Trends in National Institutes of Health Funding for Clinical Trials Registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. JAMA. 2015;314(23):2566–2567.
Chopra SS. MSJAMA: Industry funding of clinical trials: benefit or bias? JAMA. 2003;290(1):113–114.
CMS Open Payment Data. Available at: https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/. Accessed Dec 2018.
CMS Open Payments. Available at: https://www.cms.gov/OpenPayments/. Accessed Dec 2018.
Society of Surgical Oncology. Find a Surgical Oncologist. Available at: https://apps.surgonc.org/directory/findadoc.aspx. Accessed Sep 2018.
American Board of Sugery. For the Public, Verifying Certification Status. Available at: https://www.absurgery.org. Accessed Sep 2018.
Narahari AK, Mehaffey JH, Hawkins RB, et al. Surgeon scientists are disproportionately affected by declining NIH funding rates. J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2018;226(4):474–481.
Wayant C, Turner E, Meyer C, Sinnett P, Vassar M. Financial conflicts of interest among oncologist authors of reports of clinical drug trials. JAMA Oncol. 2018;4(10):1426–1428.
Olavarria OA, Holihan JL, Cherla D, et al. Comparison of conflicts of interest among published hernia researchers self-reported with the centers for medicare and medicaid services open payments database. J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2017;224(5):800–804.
Nguyen V, Marmor RA, Ramamoorthy SL, Blair SL, Clary BM, Sicklick JK. Academic surgical oncologists’ productivity correlates with gender, grant funding, and institutional NCI comprehensive cancer center affiliation. Ann. Surg. Oncol. 2018;25(7):1852–1859.
Medical Sales Salary Report. Available at: https://www.medreps.com/medical-sales-careers/medical-sales-salary-report. Accessed Dec 2018.
Patel SV, Yu D, Elsolh B, Goldacre BM, Nash GM. Assessment of conflicts of interest in robotic surgical studies: validating author’s declarations with the open payments database. Ann. Surg. 2018;268(1):86–92.
Ziai K, Pigazzi A, Smith BR, et al. Association of compensation from the surgical and medical device industry to physicians and self-declared conflict of interest. JAMA Surg. 2018;153(11):997–1002.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Carol LeBlanc for kindly assisting with biographical data collection.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Santamaria-Barria, J.A., Stern, S., Khader, A. et al. Changing Trends in Industry Funding for Surgical Oncologists. Ann Surg Oncol 26, 2327–2335 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-019-07380-1
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-019-07380-1