Discordance of conflict of interest self-disclosure and the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services

Abstract

BackgroundThe Open Payments Database (OPD) discloses financial transactions between manufacturers and physicians. The concordance of OPD versus self-reported conflicts of interest (COI) is unknown. Materials and methodsOur objectives were to compare (1) industry and self-disclosed COI in clinical literature, (2) payments within each disclosure level, and (3) industry- and self-disclosed COI and payments by specialty. This was an observational study. PubMed was searched for clinical studies accepted for publication from January 2014 to June 2016. Author and OPD-disclosed COIs were compared. Articles and authors were divided into full disclosure, incomplete industry disclosure, incomplete self-disclosure, and no COI. Primary outcome (differences in reported COI per article) was assessed using McNemar's test. Payment differences were compared using Kruskal–Wallis test. ResultsOPD- and self-disclosed COI differed (65.0% discordance rate by article, P < 0.001). Percentages of authors within each disclosure category differed between specialties (P < 0.001). Hematology articles exhibited the highest discordance rate (79.0%) and received the highest median payment for incomplete self-disclosure ($30,812). ConclusionsSignificant discordance exists between self- and OPD-reported COI. Additional research is needed to determine reasons for these differences.