CORR® Curriculum—Orthopaedic Education: Teaching the Intricacies of the Surgeon-Industry Relationship

摘要

The longstanding relationship between orthopaedic surgeons and the medical-device industry invites claims of potential bias and conflict of interest for even the most cautious and meticulous of surgeons [1, 2, 4, 5, 11]. Considering the dollar amounts involved, I believe this scrutiny is warranted. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) maintains the Physicians Payment Sunshine Act database, which discloses industry payments to physicians and institutions. According to CMS’s Open Payments database (https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov), orthopaedic surgeons account for 3.4% of all doctors receiving payments, but receive 25.4% of the money. In 2018, CMS reported USD 9.35 billion for all doctors [3, 7, 10].