Payments to healthcare organisations reported by the medical device industry in Europe from 2017 to 2019: an observational study

Abstract

Background Medical device industry payments to healthcare organisations (HCOs) can create conflicts of interest which can undermine patient care. One way of addressing this concern is by enhancing transparency of industry financial support to HCOs. MedTech Europe, a medical device trade body, operate a system of disclosure of education payments to European HCOs. This study aimed to characterise payments reported in this database and to evaluate the disclosure system. Methods An observational study of education-related payments to HCOs reported by the medical device industry in Europe was conducted. Data was manually extracted from transparentmedtech.eu. The primary outcome variable is the value of the payments, overall, and for each year, payment type, and country. The accessibility, availability and quality of the database was also analysed, using a proforma with 15 measures. Findings Overall, 116 medical device companies reported education-related payments in 53 countries, valuing over 420 million euro between 2017-2019, increasing in value between 2017-2019, from 91,289,672 euro to 175,414,302 euro. Ten countries accounted for 94% of all payments and ten companies accounted for 80% of all payments. The accessibility, availability and quality of the database, rated low for six measures, medium for six measures and high for three measures. Interpretation There is a large amount of education-related payments from medical device companies to European HCOs, creating substantial potential for conflicts of interest. The MedTech Europe disclosure system has many shortcomings. A European-wide publicly mandated disclosure system for both the medical device and pharmaceutical industries should be introduced. Funding Swedish Research Council (SM, PO)

Competing Interest Statement

JL, PO, KL, TF and FM have no competing interests. The partner of SM is employed by ICON, a global Contract Research Organization whose customers include many pharmaceutical and medical device companies. AO has received speaker from Kyowa Kirin Inc. and consultancy payments from MNES Inc.

Funding Statement

Funding Statement: JL, KL, TF, AO and FM received no specific funding associated with this publication. SM and PO were supported by the grant Following the money: cross national study of pharmaceutical industry payments to medical associations and patient organisations. This was awarded by The Swedish Research Council (VR), no. 2020 01822. The funder had no role in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the articles; and in the decision to submit it for publication.

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I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

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I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

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Data Availability

Aggregated data are available online at: Larkin, James, Lynch, Kevin, & Moriarty, Frank. (2023). Medical Device Industry Payments Europe 2017-2019 [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7866632

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