Doctors Given Millions Fail to Disclose Device Industry Ties

Fewer than half of the physicians who received $1 million or more in consulting fees from medical device companies including Johnson & Johnson, Stryker Corp. and Biomet Inc. in 2007 disclosed the financial ties in subsequent articles they wrote about the industry, a study shows.

Investigators analyzed a database of payments from J&J’s DePuy unit, Stryker, Zimmer Holdings Inc., Biomet and Smith & Nephew Plc, and cross referenced their findings with disclosures on medical journal articles written by the top-paid consultants, according to the report released today in the Archives of Internal Medicine. They focused on 40 orthopedic surgeon researchers given at least $1 million from a single company and another who received that much from two companies. The biggest payout was $8.9 million.