Industry payments to family medicine residents in Portugal: a descriptive analysis of the national transparency database

OBJECTIVE: To analyse payments made to family medicine residents by the pharmaceutical industry during their residency in Portugal, using mandatory disclosure data. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Cohort study of residents starting their family medicine training in 2015, using data collected from the public national transparency database (Plataforma de Comunicações Transparência e Publicidade). Payments were categorised into six groups, including scientific meetings, educational activities, travel allowances, fees, gifts and undetermined. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of payments and the total value received by family medicine residents during their training period; number of payments according to their nature (six categories); number of payments and total value by paying entity. RESULTS: We analysed data of 457 family medicine residents. A total of 2790 payments were made to 424 (92.8%) residents, amounting to €826 271.14. Thirty-three residents did not receive any payment. The median number of payments per resident was 5 and the median amount received per resident was €1309.51. Residents who ranked in the top 25%, according to value received, were subsidised more than €2500.90 over the course of their residency. This subset of residents received 59.1% of the total amount disbursed in payments. Payments were primarily for attending scientific meetings (80.9%) and educational activities (17.1%). The top 10 paying entities accounted for 69.2% of the total amount paid. CONCLUSION: Pharmaceutical industry funding for family medicine residents was highly prevalent, raising concerns over industry influence on medical education, while payment distribution was heterogeneous.