Academic Productivity at Orthopedic Surgery Sports Medicine Fellowship Programs in the United States Has a Weak Positive Correlation with Non-Research Life-Time Industry Earnings

Abstract

PurposeTo characterize the relationship between academic productivity, as defined by H-index, and industry payments for fellowship-trained sports medicine surgeons in faculty positions at sports medicine fellowships. MethodsThe American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) fellowship directory was used to create a comprehensive list of all fellowship programs nationwide. Fellowship websites were then reviewed to generate a list of the teaching faculty associated with each program. Total non-research life-time earnings was obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website. Academic productivity of each fellowship faculty was assessed via H-index. Frequency counts and other descriptive statistic measures were used to describe the data for this study. Correlation was performed for continuous data using Spearman’s rho. Results90 orthopedic surgery sports medicine fellowships were identified with a combined total of 574 orthopedic surgery sports medicine fellowship faculty. There was a weak positive correlation between individual physician H-index and individual physician life-time earnings at orthopedic surgery sports medicine fellowships (p<0.001; Spearman’s rho = 0.329). There was a statistically significant difference between individual faculty H-index by quartile and individual faculty life-time earnings (test statistic: 47.3; p<0.001). There was no significant regional difference in payments but there is remarkable heterogeneity in the distribution of payments to individual physicians, with the top 10% of physicians receiving over 80% of industry dollars. ConclusionThere is a positive correlation between academic productivity and industry payments at both the individual and institutional level in orthopedic sports medicine departments, although this relationship was greater at the fellowship level. Furthermore, the majority of non-research industry funding goes to a minority of physicians. Clinical RelevanceEvaluating the impact that non-research industry payments have on a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon's research productivity can offer valuable insights into the relationship between industry compensation and scholarly output in this field.