Academic Influence as Reflected by h Index Is Not Associated With Total Industry Payments but Rather With National Institutes of Health Funding Among Academic Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Surgeons

Purpose The aims of the current study were 1) to compare the total number and dollar amount of industry funding and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to academic orthopedic sports medicine surgeons and 2) to examine the impact of academic influence on industry funding and NIH funding to academic orthopedic sports medicine surgeons. Methods Academic orthopedic sports medicine surgeons were identified using faculty webpages. Academic influence was approximated by a physician's h-index and number of publications and obtained from the Scopus database. Total industry payments were acquired through the Open Payments Database and NIH funding was determined from the NIH website. Statistical analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney U testing and Spearman correlations with significance set at p Results Physicians who received industry research payments and NIH funding had a significantly higher mean h-index and mean total publications than physicians that did not receive industry research payments and NIH funding. There were no significant differences in h-index (p= 0.374) or number of publications (p=0.126) between surgeons receiving industry non-research funding and those who did not. H-index and number of publications were both weakly correlated with the amount of industry research and non-research funding. Conclusion While academic influence is associated with industry research funding and NIH funding, there is no association between measures of academic influence and total industry and industry non-research payments. Combined with the weak associations between academic influence and the amount of industry payments, academic influence does not appear to be a major determinant of industry funding to academic orthopedic sports medicine surgeons. Clinical relevance While surgeons should be cognizant of potential conflicts with industry, the relationship between academic sports medicine surgeons and industry may be less subject to bias than previously believed.