How drug company payments to cancer doctors might change care, outcomes, and costs
Understanding the Importance of Industry Relationships for Cancer Care Quality, Outcomes, and Costs
This project looks at whether payments from drug companies to cancer doctors change the treatments patients receive and affect outcomes and costs for Medicare cancer patients.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R37 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11126740 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will link public records of payments from drug manufacturers to doctors with Medicare fee-for-service claims to see if doctors who receive payments prescribe different cancer drugs. They will focus on payments tied to drugs relevant to each patient's treatment decisions and compare patients treated by paid versus unpaid physicians. The team will examine outcomes such as drug side effects, financial burden, and survival while accounting for patient and disease differences. Results will clarify whether physician-industry financial ties translate into measurable changes in care quality, patient harm, or higher costs.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with cancer whose treating physicians may have received payments from drug manufacturers are the main group represented in this work.
Not a fit: People not enrolled in Medicare fee-for-service, pediatric patients, or those whose care does not involve prescription cancer drugs may not be represented or directly benefit from this analysis.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the findings could guide policies or practices that protect patients from inappropriate industry influence and improve cancer care quality and cost transparency.
How similar studies have performed: Previous studies show industry payments influence physician prescribing patterns, but directly linking those payments to patient outcomes and costs is a newer and less-explored approach.
Where this research is happening
New York, United States
- Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research — New York, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Mitchell, Aaron P — Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
- Study coordinator: Mitchell, Aaron P
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.