84 percent of authors receive general payments, 47 percent receive industry research payments
MONDAY, Aug. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline authors report financial conflicts of interest (FCOIs), according to a study published online Aug. 25 in JAMA Oncology.
Aaron P. Mitchell, M.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and colleagues quantified FCOIs occurring during 2014 among NCCN guideline authors in the United States. Participants were physician members of the NCCN guideline committees for lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. Data were obtained from Open Payments, publicly reported data collected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The researchers found that 86 percent of the 125 authors had at least one reported FCOI. On average, authors received general payments of $10,011, including consulting, meals, lodging, and similar transfers of value, and industry research payments of $236,066, including clinical trial-associated funding. About 84 and 47 percent of authors received general payments and research payments, respectively. Six percent of authors had FCOIs above the NCCN-stipulated $50,000 net and/or $20,000 single-company maximums.
“Although FCOIs may result from engaging in important scholarship, FCOIs may still influence guideline authors in counterproductive ways,” the authors write. “Research is needed to understand how best to manage author FCOIs during guideline creation.”
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