The researchers analyzed payments from the Open Payments database, including results from 2.6 million payments with physicians. There were 491,223 payments — around 18.2 percent — were made to physicians with multiple listed specialties and were excluded from the study. There was $394.5 million in payments.
Here are five things to know:
1. Orthopedic surgeons represented 2.3 percent of payments, but 25.6 percent of value. There were 13,347 orthopedic surgeons listed on the OPD — around 68.9 percent of all active orthopedic surgeons.
2. The payments of $10,000 or over represented only 1.6 percent of payments to orthopedic surgeons, but 75.5 percent of value.
3. The majority of payments — around 56 percent — were royalties.
4. The average payment for orthopedic surgeons was $38.11 with two payments per surgeon. The aggregated value was $132.56 per surgeon.
5. The orthopedics surgeons listed on OPD were more likely to take payments for travel when compared with other specialties. They were also more likely to receive royalties than most other specialties.
“Financial interactions between orthopedic surgeons and industry are highly prevalent,” concluded the study authors. “A small subset of orthopedic surgeons receive large royalties, which accounted for a majority of the transactional value provided by industry.”
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