STUDY: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST COMMON IN ORTHOPAEDIC PRODUCT STUDIES

A recent study concludes that financial conflicts of interest are common in orthopaedic research, with researchers demonstrating a greater tendency to report positive findings about devices if they earned royalties, held stock options, served as consultants or were employees of device firms.

The study, published in the March issue of the The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS), found that self-reported conflicts of interest are particularly common in the subspecialty research fields of adult reconstruction of the knee, hip and spine.

The authors analyzed the abstracts of all podium presentations given at the 2001 and 2002 annual meetings of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The findings reported in each abstract were categorized as "positive," "negative," "neutral" or "not applicable." Conflicts of interest were reported in 40.8 percent of the abstracts.

In comparing the study results of researchers with and without conflicts of interest, the JBJS authors found that:

98.4 percent of researchers who received royalties reported positive findings compared with 88 percent of researchers who did not receive royalties;

100 percent of researchers who received stock options reported positive findings compared with 84.7 percent of researchers who did not receive stock options; and

97.8 percent of researchers who had consultant or employee status reported positive findings compared with 89 percent of researchers who did not.

The benefits associated with industry support of orthopaedic research must be balanced with "safeguards to maintain public trust in the medical research establishment," the JBJS authors concluded. Disclosure alone "has not been shown to eliminate the negative effects of conflict of interest when used in isolation."

( http://www.fdanews.com/ddl/34_11/ )