Financial conflicts of interest of OncoAlert: An informal oncology professional network

Social media platforms have allowed the formation of informal professional healthcare networks. Transparency in funding, membership requirements, financial conflicts of interest (FCOI), and messaging are necessary to ensure best practices for similar networks in the future.

To analyze the FCOIs of US-based physician members of the OncoAlert Network and appraise the content of their public Twitter account.

This cross-sectional study assessed the FCOIs among US-based physician members of the OncoAlert Network between 2015 and 2020. FCOI data were obtained through the Open Payments Database. Additionally, tweets were examined for content analysis.

The number of US-based physician members with FCOIs with the pharmaceutical industry; the amount of general, research, and associated research payments; and the perceived attitude of tweet content from the OncoAlert Network Twitter account.

Of 34 US physician members of the OncoAlert Network, 31 (91.2%) received general payments from pharmaceutical companies according to the Open Payments Database. Between 2015 and 2020, US physician members of the OncoAlert Network received a median of $83,600 in general payments (interquartile range [IRQ], $7,200-$221,500). Fourteen members (41.1%) received more than $100,000 in general payments. Additionally, 480 (15.7 %) of 3064 tweets retrieved from the OncoAlert Twitter account mentioned a drug or clinical trial. Of these, 31.6 % (n = 152) had a positive disposition and 3.3 % (n = 16) were negative or critical.

Over 90% of US physician members of the OncoAlert Network had FCOIs between 2015 and 2020. Despite the network's non-profit status, FCOIs amongst its members may influence content produced on the network's social media platforms, such as Twitter, where content discussing drugs and clinical trials are often positive and seldom negative or critical. For future informal professional networks, further research is required to establish best practices for issues such as membership requirements, funding, and FCOI disclosure.