Study evaluates industry payments to orthopedic surgeons (press release)
Million-dollar payments to surgeons raise questions (Reuters Health)
Orthopedic surgeons have received hundreds of millions of dollars from joint implant manufacturers in recent years, according to a report released Monday.
In 2007, five device makers said they had paid surgeons more than $198 million, with 43 payments exceeding $1 million.
While the number of payments appears to have dropped since 2007, the average dollar amount has gone up, based on data from the three manufacturers that disclosed physician payments made in the last several years.
"There is a lot of money flowing back and forth," said Jason Hockenberry of Emory University, whose findings are published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Those financial ties represent anything from consulting fees to royalties to research support. Some argue they are necessary to drive medical innovations, but others fear they could end up harming patients as well.
Doctors getting industry money could be quicker to use implants from the companies paying them, for instance, or downplay the side effects of those products in their research.
The n...
