Thread by @JosephSakran

The Power of Industry in Medicine is tremendous, and the COST of speaking Truth to Power is real.

This is one example of how industry attempts to influence the narrative within medicine. @WesternTrauma

@prytimemedical - is the largest suppliers of REBOA catheter in the U.S.
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Dave Spencer, @prytimemedical CEO says in a letter put out on March 3rd that one of the “fundamental Core Values is transparency and open communication” at Prytime Medical.

Yet he privately sends a scathing letter emailed to @WesternTrauma Officers and Board of Directors: 👇

This is based on a study that was done where the following abstract was submitted and accepted to @WesternTrauma:

"The Undisclosed Disclosures: The Dollar-Outcome Relationship in Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta in Trauma"

The @WesternTrauma program committee, which is compiled of numerous clinicians and researchers from all across the country accepted the abstract for presentation:

Now lets be clear about a few things:

✅ The relationship between clinicians and industry can be incredibly valuable

✅ I personally have no issue of educational or research type collaborations, and clinicians should be valued for the time they Invest

As background the goal of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act is to:

✅Improve transparency from industry to physicians

✅Mandates disclosures of all ‘payments’ or ‘transfers of value’

And all of this is publicly available at Openpaymentsdata.cms.gov

This study by @TopKniFe_B and team looked at the relationship between physicians and the #REBOA industry evaluating Conflict of Interest (COI) disclosures.

It is one of many studies that has looked at COI in disclosures: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30053509/

The authors did a study that ANYONE can replicate because it’s all open access.

The definition of Inaccurate COI disclosure is: If at least 1 author received payment and did not report in the published study.

Results of Study:

◼️Accuracy of COI disclosures in REBOA studies is very low: 12%

◼️Articles with authors receiving payment were approximately 2X more likely to be FAVORABLE

This study, which is going to be presented on Tuesday March 7th @WesternTrauma continues to contribute to the literature about the opportunities we have to recognize our own bias and do better for patients.

Unfortunately, this is not where the story ends.........

A few summary thoughts:

1. The letter makes assumptions without even hearing the presentation.

2. This is not the first study demonstrating the COI inaccuracies.

3. This data is all open access and can be easily replicated if @prytimemedical wants to dispute the findings.

4. To send an email to @WesternTrauma Officers and the Board exerting their Influence on an evidenced based study that was accepted by the program committee is absolutely unacceptable.

5. This study highlights an opportunity for us to recognize the bias that exists in medicine.

6. The fact that @prytimemedical thinks the medical organization has to give PRIOR NOTICE to the company about a scientific presentation at their @AmCollSurgeons CME event is hogwash.

7. The @prytimemedical CEO implies that because they have been “dutiful partners over 10 years” they should receive some sort of special privilege and advanced warning about a scientific presentation!!?

I suspect if findings were favorable the same would not be true.

8. Dave Spencer clearly didn’t understand the study. It has nothing to do with what the company reported, it is about disclosure of payments by physicians and this is actually not a direct attack on the company.

9. This is an example of how a BILLION dollar industry exerts influence when it doesn’t necessarily align with their interest.

10. I’m disgusted by this "hit piece" against both a credible organization and credible authors that are respected trauma researchers.

What I want to see is how @WesternTrauma is going to respond to this.

We must not be bullied by powerful corporations. I hope you publicly respond to @prytimemedical & that you RECORD and display the presentation so there is no confusion about what is presented. #MedTwitter

Follow up to above — see this video thread:

https://twitter.com/JosephSakran/status/1633377653808824322