Industry Consulting Payments to Orthopedic Surgeons Are Associated With Increased Publications

In accordance with the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, all industry payments to physicians in the United States have become publicly available. Previous research has indicated that orthopedic surgeons receive the greatest amount of industry compensation compared with other surgical subspecialists. However, the relationship between this compensation and research productivity is less clear. This study sought to investigate the relationship between consulting fees paid to orthopedic surgeons and academic productivity. Using the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Open Payments Database, this study identified 2555 orthopedic surgeons who received at least one industry consulting fee in 2015. Physicians who received total consulting fees of at least $20,000 (US) were stratified into the high payment group. The number of publications and the h-index for each physician were used as metrics of scholarly impact. Mean publication number and h-index for the high payment group were compared with all other physicians in the sample using an independent-samples t test. A total of 2555 orthopedic surgeons received consulting payments totaling $62,323,143 in 2015. The mean consulting payment was $24,393 (SD, $45,465). The publication number was greater for the high payment group (mean, 61.6; SD, 135.6) compared with all other physicians in the sample (mean, 36.1; SD, 95.6). Additionally, the mean h-index for the high payment group was 13.7 (SD, 14.3) compared with 10.0 (SD, 11.6) for all other orthopedic surgeons. These findings indicate that the orthopedic surgeons who receive more in industry consulting fees are also those who contribute most substantially to the body of orthopedic literature. [Orthopedics. 2019; 42(3):137-142.].