Industry Payments and Academic Influence in Reconstructive Microsurgery

Background: Financial relationships between industry and microsurgeons help facilitate innovation but have the potential to bias a surgeon’s academic work. To better understand industry-academic relationships, this study investigated the association between industry payments made to microsurgeons and their academic influence. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of microsurgeons at ACGME-accredited plastic surgery residency programs during the 2020-2021 academic year was performed. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Open Payments Database was used to collect industry payments (research and non-research related) to each surgeon. Academic influence was measured by h-index and number of publications. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 199 microsurgeons identified, 156 (78.39%) received an industry non-research payment, but 0 (0.0%) received an industry research payment. Surgeons who received any amount of industry payments did not have a higher mean h-index or higher mean number of publications than surgeons with no industry payments. However, surgeons with total industry payments over $10,000 (n=15) had a higher number of publications than surgeons with no industry payments (135.47 vs. 36.02, p=0.0074), $0-$1000 in payments (135.47 vs. 34.37, p=0.0006), and $1,000-$10,000 in payments (135.47 vs. 45.43, p=0.0268). Surgeons with total industry payments over $10,000 also had higher h-indices than surgeons with $0-$1000 in payments (24.4 vs. 10.34, p=0.0039) and $1,000-$10,000 in payments (24.4 vs. 11.34, p=0.0413). Conclusion: Industry funding is associated with higher h-index and higher number of publications for high earners (>$10,000). Private companies may favor these surgeons for their academic expertise.