Industry-Reported Financial Relationships Among American Ophthalmology Society Board Members

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Ethics
• Health Policy

Background:

• Financial relationships between industry and ophthalmology society board members are common.
• Assessing the transparency of these financial disclosures is crucial for ethical governance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare self-reported financial disclosures with industry-reported payments for American ophthalmology society board members.
• To identify characteristics associated with significant financial relationships.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective, cross-sectional study of 871 board members from 66 American ophthalmology societies in December 2022.
• Data sources included society websites, Open Payments database, and IRS Form 990 filings.
• Analysis focused on disclosure concordance, payment values, gender, subspecialty, and academic factors.

Main Results:

• Only 2.5% of board members disclosed conflicts of interest (COIs) on society websites, despite 65.0% having industry-reported relationships totaling $57.8 million in 2022.
• Men received significantly higher median payments than women ($217.5 vs. $43.3).
• Retina specialists received the largest payment share (55.3%), while those with research payments showed higher academic productivity.

Conclusions:

• Public reporting of board members' financial relationships on ophthalmology society websites is uncommon.
• This likely reflects varied society-level disclosure practices rather than individual nondisclosure.
• Societies have an opportunity to enhance transparency through consistent COI reporting.