5 healthcare industry giants funnel over $333M in research payments to radiologists
Five healthcare industry giants have funneled over $333 million (or about 40.4%) in research payments to radiologists, according to new research published Monday in JACR.
Between 2015 and 2024, such annual industry-sponsored payments to fuel investigations leapt about 50%, totaling $824.2 million over this period. Pharmaceutical firm Merck was the No. 1 funder for radiologists, contributing nearly $108 million in payments, followed by imaging manufacturer Siemens Healthineers ($64 million) and drugmaker Novartis ($57 million).
The findings come from an analysis of the Open Payments database, launched in 2013 to help shine light on potential conflicts of interest between physicians and vendors. Experts note these payments are increasingly being funneled through “noncovered entities”—third-party organizations that are not subject to the same scrutiny established by the Sunshine Act.
“Research payments to radiologists have increased significantly because of increases in payments to [noncovered entities], concentrated among a select group of radiologists,” lead author Ethan N. Lee, with Johns Hopkins University at the time of the study, and colleagues concluded. “When transparent and appropriately managed, [noncovered entities] represent valuable partnerships improving patient care; yet, further research remains imperative to understand changes in research funding pathways.”
Such third-party organizations typically receive industry research funding with the intent to distribute the money to radiologists or other parties serving as principal investigators. Examples of these entities can include universities not receiving graduate medical education funding, contracted research outfits, independent research institutes, foundations and charitable organizations.
“These organizations are vital in providing scalability, regulatory expertise and cost efficiency for medical research,” Lee and co-authors wrote. “However, reporting entities are not required to disclose payment allocation among multiple [principal investigators] at [noncovered entities]. Therefore, increasing payments to [noncovered entities] can potentially lead to unclear conflicts of interest, undermining the intent of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.”
Between 2015 and 2024, there were nearly 58,000 research payments made to almost 3,000 radiologists, the analysis found. Annual payments during this time were driven by a 44% increase in payments to such noncovered entities. Among these third-party organizations, median payments per principal investigator increased from about $13,718 up to $24,350 by the end of the study period. As of 2024, male radiologists received about 88% (or almost $59 million) of these noncovered entity payments, a 54% increase, the authors found.
Rounding out the top five among the biggest contributors to radiologists were biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca at No. 4 ($55 million) and GE HealthCare at No. 5 ($50 million). Meanwhile, three products accounted for over 19% of research payments to radiologists. These included Merck’s Keytruda, an immunotherapy used to treat various types of cancer ($102 million); AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi, a monoclonal antibody medication also used for multiple cancers ($32 million); and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo, another cancer immunotherapy ($26 million).
All seven of the medical products associated with the highest research payments to radiologists were cancer therapies, the analysis found. And all of them were immunotherapies, except for Novartis’ Pluvicto, a radiation therapy for prostate cancer. Keytruda accounted for 12.3% of total research payments to rads, over three times the next highest product. This after its expanded approval required multiple clinical studies, the authors noted.
“A sustained increase in research payments to teaching hospitals since 2017, potentially reflecting stricter self-imposed disclosure mandates under early [Open Payments program] guidelines, also contributed to overall increases in research payments,” Lee and colleagues wrote. “However, the number of unique radiology [principal investigators] of [noncovered entities] has remained consistent, suggesting a concentration of funding directed to a select group of physicians.”
Read much more, including potential study limitations, in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. You can also find previous coverage of studies related to the Open Payments database below.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.