Industry Financial Relationships of Presenters at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting with an Emphasis on Consultants.

Objective: To assess industry financial relationships of ophthalmologist presenters at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Annual Meeting between 2016 and 2020.

Design: Cross-sectional study PARTICIPANTS: Program presenters from AAO Annual Meetings, 2016 - 2020 METHODS: From the AAO Annual Meeting programs, we determined individual meeting participants and the number of papers, posters, courses and symposia they presented. National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers were obtained for all participants who had them. The CMS Open Payments Database (OPD) was used to obtain information about physician industry payments from 2016-2020. NPI numbers were used to allow for analysis directly comparing AAO participation and industry payment information by calendar year. Summary statistics were tabulated by year. Linear regression models were used to assess the relationship between participation and payments and between participation and year to assess for time-varying relationships between participation and payments.

Main outcome measure: The association of industry payments to AAO Annual Meeting presenters, especially industry consultants, for symposia, courses, papers, and posters.

Results: There were 811 distinct program participants who had NPI numbers, with 1584 records of participation over the 5 years studied. Presenters could have multiple participations in each annual meeting. Overall, meeting participants without NPI numbers (presumably meeting participants who do not practice medicine in the US) had a higher proportion of poster presentations and a lower proportion of symposia participation. Most presenters (67-74%) at the AAO Annual Meeting received payments from industry in the same year they presented at the AAO Annual Meeting. AAO Annual Meeting presenters who received industry funding characterized as "consulting" in the OPD received higher median payment amounts. Although there was no evidence of change in total OPD payments over the years studied, consulting payments to AAO Annual Meeting participants increased 20% per year (p<0.01) from 2016-2019.

Conclusion: Most AAO Annual Meeting presenters have financial relationships with industry. Increased financial transparency required by the Affordable Care Act has not reduced physician financial relationships with industry. There is a higher proportion and higher amounts of industry money given to presenters in symposia, compared to poster presenters. Industry financial relationships are correlated with participation in symposia and courses at AAO Annual Meetings.