Female dermatology journal editors accepting pharmaceutical payments: An analysis of the Open Payments database, 2013 to 2018.

BACKGROUND: Pharmaceutical payments may affect the interpretation of clinical research and prescribing patterns of physicians. Additionally, they may reflect gender disparities in academic dermatology with regard to social recognition and opportunities for career advancement. OBJECTIVE: We examined relationships with industry among male and female journal editors who accepted pharmaceutical payments in leading dermatology journals. METHODS: We assessed the seven US journals among the leading 20 dermatology journals as determined by impact factor and gathered data via the CMS Open Payments dataset. RESULTS: In a cross-sectional study of 329 editors eligible to appear in the Open Payments website, we found that 218 (66.3%) received industry payments totaling $21,952,402. The mean and median dollar value of payments per editor was $100,699 and $3,638 (interquartile range, $364-$57,108). Food and beverage payments accounted for 63.0% of the $28,992 total payments, and the associated dollar value was $887,617 (4.04%). Gender disparities in corporate payments were observed in other contexts, but we did not find a similar relationship among leading dermatology journals. CONCLUSION: Our work highlights that pharmaceutical payments exist among dermatology editors, providing a rationale for future research to address whether editor bias related to pharmaceutical payments exists and more granular studies on the role of gender with regard to navigating such payments.

Factors associated with disease severity and mortality among patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the factors associated with disease severity and mortality in Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is imperative to effectively triage patients. We performed a systematic review to determine the demographic, clinical, laboratory and radiological factors associated with severity and mortality in COVID-19. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Embase and WHO database for English language articles from inception until May 8, 2020. We included Observational studies with direct comparison of clinical characteristics between a) patients who died and those who survived or b) patients with severe disease and those without severe disease. Data extraction and quality assessment were performed by two authors independently. RESULTS: Among 15680 articles from the literature search, 109 articles were included in the analysis. The risk of mortality was higher in patients with increasing age, male gender (RR 1.45, 95%CI 1.23-1.71), dyspnea (RR 2.55, 95%CI 1.88-2.46), diabetes (RR 1.59, 95%CI 1.41-1.78), hypertension (RR 1.90, 95%CI 1.69-2.15). Congestive heart failure (OR 4.76, 95%CI 1.34-16.97), hilar lymphadenopathy (OR 8.34, 95%CI 2.57-27.08), bilateral lung involvement (OR 4.86, 95%CI 3.19-7.39) and reticular pattern (OR 5.54, 95%CI 1.24-24.67) were associated with severe disease. Clinically relevant cut-offs for leukocytosis(>10.0 x109/L), lymphopenia(< 1.1 x109/L), elevated C-reactive protein(>100mg/L), LDH(>250U/L) and D-dimer(>1mg/L) had higher odds of severe disease and greater risk of mortality. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of the factors associated of disease severity and mortality identified in our study may assist in clinical decision-making and critical-care resource allocation for patients with COVID-19.