Leonard, Kaele M.; Khalil, Timothy A.; Welch, Jacob; Dahlberg, Greta; Ratwani, Ankush; Duke, Jennifer D.; Paez, Rafael; Gordon, Elisa J.; Shojaee, Samira; Lentz, Robert J.; Maldonado, Fabien. “Conflicts of Interest in Bronchoscopy Research: Is Self-Reporting Sufficient?” Chest 167, no. 4 (2025): 1161 1170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2024.10.006.
Robotic-assisted bronchoscopy is a new, advanced method used to diagnose and treat lung nodules, and it’s become widely used in the U.S. Thanks to major funding from medical device companies, there’s been a surge in research and publications about this technology. However, there’s concern that these companies’ financial relationships with doctors could be influencing the research—and that those connections aren’t always being properly disclosed.
This study looked at 27 research papers published between 2016 and 2022 and analyzed financial data from the U.S. government’s Open Payments Database, which tracks money paid from medical companies to doctors. The researchers focused on 75 U.S. physician-authors who contributed to those papers.
In total, these doctors received about $17 million in payments from companies connected to bronchoscopy. Shockingly, $9.9 million of that—around 57%—was not reported in the articles. Out of the 75 doctors, 68 (or 91%) didn’t fully disclose their financial ties. Even when small items like meals were excluded, 60 doctors (80%) still failed to report all relevant payments.
The results suggest that the current system—where researchers report their own financial ties—often doesn’t work. The study recommends creating a centralized, automated system to make these disclosures more accurate and transparent.
Figure 1
Author selection process. JOBIP = Journal of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology; JTD = Journal of Thoracic Disease; MD/DO = doctor of medicine/doctor of osteopathic medicine.