Payments to leading otorhinolaryngologists: clinical
practice guideline authors, society board members, and academic journal
editors
We identified a total of 139 individual authors from eight clinical
practice guidelines accredited or authorized by the JHO-HNS between 2015
and 2020. (Table 2) Of the 139 authors, 101 (72.7%) authors were
board-certified otorhinolaryngologists and 94 (93.1%) received one or
more personal payments for lecturing, consulting, and writing
compensations. A total of $2,435,239 (17.6% [$2,435,239 out of
$13,873,562] of overall personal payments from the companies) were
made to 94 otorhinolaryngologists authoring clinical practice
guidelines. The aggregated payment per physician was significantly
higher among otorhinolaryngologists authoring clinical practice
guidelines than that of otorhinolaryngologists not involved in authoring
guidelines ($11,522 [IQR: $3,090–$32,390] vs $0 [IQR:
$0–$817], p<0.001).
All 36 board members of the JSO-HNS during the 2018-2019 and 2020-2021
period were board-certified otorhinolaryngologists. Of 36
board-certified otorhinolaryngologists with the JSO-HNS board
membership, 34 (94.4%) received a total of $1,234,715 (8.9% of
overall payments) and a median payment of $22,261 (IQR:
$4,537–$50,331) per physician. (Table 2) Both the proportion of
otorhinolaryngologists receiving payments (94.4% vs 44.6%,
p<0.001) and the payments per physician ($22,261 [IQR:
$4,537–$50,331] vs $0 [IQR: $0–$831], p<0.001)
were significantly higher for the otorhinolaryngologists positioned as
the JSO-HNS board member than those without board membership.
There were 20 Japanese editors of the Auris Nasus Larynx and
among them, 19 editors were board-certified otorhinolaryngologists. All
19 (100%) board-certified otorhinolaryngologists who are editors of theAuris Nasus Larynx received payments with $774,171 (5.6% of
overall payments) in total and $35,143 (IQR: $7,733–$50,373) in
median per-physician payments from pharmaceutical companies. (Table 2)
The multivariable Poisson regression model showed that clinical practice
guidelines authorship, JSO-HNS board membership, and editorial
membership in the academic journal were significantly associated with
1.96 (95% CI: 1.82–2.12) times, 1.47 (95% CI: 1.10–1.79) times, and
1.21 (95% CI: 1.11–1.33) times higher likelihood to accept personal
payments from pharmaceutical companies than those without authorships or
memberships. (Table 2) The multivariable negative binomial regression
model indicated that clinical practice guidelines authorship and JSO-HNS
board membership were positively associated with 13.04 times (95% CI:
9.55–17.79) times and 8.57 (95% CI: 3.04–24.17) times higher monetary
values in personal payments, while editorial membership in the academic
journal was negatively associated with payment values.
Table 2. Payments to the board-certified otorhinolaryngologists with
leading roles between 2016 and 2019