Orthopedic physicians saw the highest sum of industry payments from medical device companies compared to others over nine years, according to a March 28 study in JAMA.
Five things to know:
1. Researchers used the Open Payments platform to measure payment data from 2013 to 2022. They included cash and noncash equivalents for consulting services, nonconsulting services, food and beverages, travels and lodging, entertainment, education, gifts, grants, charitable contributions and honoraria made to physicians.
2. During the time period studied, 85,087,744 payments totalling $12.13 billion were made by the industry.
3. Orthopedics saw the highest amount of industry payments compared to other specialties with $1.36 billion paid across 48,665 physicians. Other top-paid specialities included neurologists and psychiatrists ($1.32 billion), cardiologists ($1.29 billion) and hematology/oncology ($825.8 million).
4. Neurosurgeons saw more than $236 million in industry payments across 10,822 physicians.
5. The top 25 medical devices related to industry payments include Mako SmartRobotics, Arthrex devices, XLIF, Attune knee system, Senza spinal cord stimulation, Proclaim spinal stimulator and the CD Horizon spinal system.