Relationship Between Industry Funding and Otologists

Introduction: Gender disparities exist within the medical profession. While representation of women in otolaryngology is improving, this may not translate to financial ties with industry. Relationships with industry and industry-supported financial contributions can impact instrument design and usability, research endeavors, educational opportunities, access to innovative products and scholarly advancement. Our objective was to determine whether allocation of industry funding to otologist/neurotologists differs by gender.

Methods: We examined non-research payments made to otologist/neurotologists (otologists) in 2019 and 2020 included in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments Database.

Results: In 2019 and 2020, 217 otologists received industry funding. Funding was in the form of consulting, charity, education, gift, grants, honoraria, royalty/license, travel and lodging, and other compensation. There were 183 (84.33%) men and 34 (15.67%) women. Comparison analyses were performed after removing outliers. The total paid amount to men was $486,276.84 (95.58%) compared to $22,500.56 (4.42%) to women (p < 0.001). Men received 675 (87.55%) total payments and women received 96 (12.45%) total payments (p = 0.066). Men received funding within each category, while women did not receive funding in honoraria, other compensation, royalty, gift, or charity. Within education, women received a median of 6 (5 - 7) payments and men received 1 (1 - 1) (p = 0.013). In travel and lodging, median payment per male physician was $1013 ($581.96 - $1785.71) versus $684.26 ($274.03 - $1078.5) per female physician (p = 0.002).

Conclusions: Preliminary data suggests that industry contributes a larger amount of funding and opportunity to male otologist/neurotologists. Further data analyses will determine whether these differences hold true when controlling for the physician’s career stage. We will investigate geographic differences and plan to include analyses of research-specific payments. Lastly, we will also expand our analyses to include other otolaryngology subspecialties, and trends over several years.