Brian Choi, MD, Publishes Article on Clinical Guidelines and Author Self-Disclosure

Dr. Brian Choi posing for a portrait

A new study published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes by Brian Choi, MD, MBA, co-director of advanced cardiac imaging and professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and colleagues, examined potential conflicts of interest facing authors of clinical guidelines, finding a “concerning” level of discrepancies in author guideline disclosures.

The researchers, including first author Ramzi Dudum, MD ’17, a resident physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, took disclosures of industry relationships from author of guidelines endorsed by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) and compared them with payments reported by industry in Open Payments to the same authors.

In the 696 relationships between author and company, reported in either the documents or Open Payments, only 8.9% were reported by both sources, according to the article. Of the 81 physician authors, 65 had self-reported or Open Payments disclosures. Thirty-two of those had data in Open Payments, but didn’t have correlating information in the respective ACC/AHA document.

“In these findings, we discovered a significant discrepancy between guideline author disclosures and industry-reported payments,” Choi said. “It’s imperative authors review Open Payments data and rectify any discrepancies and inaccuracies that may occur.”

The discrepancies, according to the report, are due to a lack of congruent reporting methods between journals, professional organizations, and the Open Payments database; varying guideline development duration leading to some relationships that are outside of the presumed disclosure window; and possible underreporting or over reporting, among other issues. 

“Author disclosures infrequently agreed with company-reported payments, and when they did agree, there were mismatches in the magnitude of the relationship,” the report noted.

The paper, “Analysis of American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guideline Author Self-Disclosure Compared with Open Payments Industry Disclosure,” was published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes in December 2019.

Latest News

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Research Showcase featured more than 300 research abstracts, offering a platform for medical students, residents, PhD candidates, and health sciences scholars to share their work in basic sciences, clinical and translational…
Each year, GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences students representing each class cast their votes for the Golden Apple Awards, selecting faculty members and residents who have made a significant impact on their education through their exceptional teaching and mentoring.
The George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and the GW Medical Faculty Associates (GW MFA) is pleased to announce that Mohamad Koubeissi, MD, FAAN, FANA, FAES, professor of neurology, has been selected to serve as the chair of the Department of Neurology and…