Mind the Academic Gap: Industry Support in the United States for Pediatric Versus Adult Rheumatologist–Authors
William Stohl, Krishan Parikh, Anuj Parikh, Sheldon M. StohlObjective
Cognitive pediatric subspecialties, including rheumatology, struggle more than their adult counterparts to recruit young physicians. Commercial industry often subsidizes biomedical research and supplements physician income. Reasoning that availability and extent of extramural financial support may steer budding academically oriented practitioners toward or away from particular disciplines, we used published authors as surrogates for academic physicians and compared industry support to pediatric rheumatologist–authors (PRAs) and adult rheumatologist–authors (ARAs).
Methods
We vetted authors of publications in the American College of Rheumatology journals in calendar years 2023 to 2024 for US affiliation, subspecialty, sex, h ‐index (measure of author impact), and receipt of industry payments during the 2017 to 2023 interval. Differences between PRAs and ARAs in frequency and magnitude of research‐associated and nonresearch‐associated payments were determined. Associations among industry payments, author sex, and h ‐index were also determined.
Results
A total of 152 of 199 US PRAs (76.4%) and 567 of 710 US ARAs (79.9%) received industry payments ( P = 0.286). Median total, nonresearch‐associated, and research‐associated payments to PRAs were 27% ($5,744 vs $21,030), 5% ($244 vs $4,905), and 0% ($0 vs $270) of those to ARAs ( P < 0.001, P = 0.018, P < 0.001, respectively). These differences cannot be explained by differences in sex distribution or author impact. Among recipients of research‐associated payments, nonresearch‐associated payments were considerably lower to PRAs than to ARAs at any level of research‐associated payment.
Conclusion
Although both US PRAs and ARAs commonly receive industry payments, the magnitude of payment per recipient is far lower to PRAs than to ARAs. We appeal to industry and to the rheumatology community to boost support of academic pediatric rheumatology.