Industry Support of Key Opinion Leaders
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Industry Support of Key Opinion Leaders
Drug Information Journal 46(2) 180-184 ª The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0092861511435908 http://dij.sagepub.com
Elizabeth Neglia, RN, MBE1, Nina Singh-Radcliff, MD2, Beth H. Minzter, MD3, and W. Andrew Kofke, MD, MBA2
Abstract Background: Our objective was to determine whether industry support of researchers has a significant role in creating key opinion leaders (KOL). Methods: First-authored publications of the 162 speakers who delivered the 2008 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) refresher courses, a sample of KOLs, were comprehensively evaluated for acknowledgment of industry support and their relevance to each lecture. Results: The data indicate that 3 of the 162 refresher course speakers had more than half of their publications supported by industry, whereas 106 of the 162 speakers disclosed no industry support. Overall, 9.4% of refresher course speaker first-authored publications disclosed industry support related to their lectures. Conclusions: Our data indicate that industry-supported career development does not occur with the majority of key opinion leaders in anesthesiology, a subset of KOLs in medicine in general. The data do not support the notion of widespread industry support creating bias through career development of KOLs. Keywords conflict of interest, key opinion leaders, medical education
Introduction Conflicts of interest are visible in medical research, education, and practice.1,2 Pharmaceutical and device company (industry) marketing can influence health care providers by means of gifts, advertising in journals and conferences, funding independent health care organizations and health promotion campaigns, lobbying physicians and politicians, sponsorship of medical school training, supporting research, and sponsorship of continuing medical education.2,3 A key element of such activities is to have well-known leaders in a field, so-called key opinion leaders, support and exhort the use of a given product. Grouse4 suggested that one element of a comprehensive marketing approach of pharmaceutical companies is to identify new researchers early in their careers and then provide opportunities for subsequent career development with ongoing financial support of research and other academic activities related to the goals of the company. This results in the generation of industry-developed key opinion leaders (KOLs), who become well-known and respected leaders in their field and then go on to promote their products via respected academic mechanisms, such as research publications, writing guidelines, publishing review articles and book chapters, or engaging in highly visible speaking activities. Within the broad field of medicine, one example of a recognized highly visible speaking activity is the annual refresher course lecture series of the American Society
of Anesthesiologists (ASA)—an ASA-sanctioned continuing medical education activity. The lectures are heavily attended at the annual meet
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