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Do Speakers Fully Disclose Potential Conflicts of Interest in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery?
J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Mar 18;:
Authors: Durrani I, Ji YD, Peacock ZS
Abstract
PURPOSE: The complete disclosure of conflicts of interest is critical to providing objective and ethical continuing education. The purpose of the present study was to determine the accuracy of the disclosed financial relationships by speakers at an annual oral and maxillofacial surgery conference.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present retrospective cross-sectional study compared speakers’ disclosures on the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Dental Implant Conference 2018 website to the payments reported on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments Database. The predictor variable was the number of companies reported by the speakers. The outcome variable was the number of relevant companies discovered on the Open Payments Database. Other variables evaluated included total dollar sum transferred and the type of speaker (OMS vs non-OMS). Companies providing payments to speakers on the Open Payments Database were deemed relevant if they had provided goods or services relevant to dental implants. Descriptive statistics were computed, and the Student t test was performed, with P < .05 considered to indicate statistical significance.
RESULTS: A total of 43 speakers were included (32 oral and maxillofacial surgeons [OMSs]; 74.4%). We found that 35 of the 43 speakers (81.4%) had received payments relating to dental implants on the Open Payments Database that had not been disclosed on the conference website. On average, the speakers had disclosed 0.65 ± 1.04 companies; however, 2.51 ± 1.32 relevant companies per speaker were reported on the Open Payments Database (P < .0001). The OMS speakers had disclosed 0.47 ± 0.95 company on the conference site but had 2.47 ± 1.32 companies reporting payments on the Open Payments Database (P < .0001). Non-OMS speakers had disclosed 1.18 ± 1.17 companies, with 2.64 ± 1.36 companies listed on the Open Payments Database (P = .0044).
CONCLUSIONS: Continuing education conferences offer an avenue of knowledge transfer; however, the objectivity of the information presented could be affected by undisclosed conflicts of interest. The results from the present study have demonstrated that most speakers at an annual oral and maxillofacial surgery conference have underreported payments from companies relevant to the conference topic.
PMID: 32283077 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]
