title: IR and the Sunshine Act: Two-Year Analysis of the Open Payments Database and Comparison with Related Specialties.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize medical industry-based payments made to US-based interventional radiology (IR) physicians, identify trends in compensation, and compare their payment profile with those of other related specialties, including vascular surgery (VS) and interventional cardiology (IC). Payments made to orthopedic surgery (OS) physicians are reported as a historical control.
  
  
  METHODS
  For each group, the total payment number, amount, and mean and median numbers and amounts were calculated. The data were then reanalyzed after correcting for statistical outliers. For IR, VS, and IC, leading industry sponsors, payment amount, and differences in payments from 2013 to 2014 were highlighted. Payments to IR were grouped by category and geographic location. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of $26,857,622 went to 1,831 IR physicians, representing 70.9% of active IR physicians, and the corrected mean payment was $597 ± 832.2 (standard deviation). The respective values were $18,861,041, 3,383, 80.6%, and $851.59 for VS; $32,008,213, 7,939, 78.6%, and $417.16 for IC; and $357,528,020, 21,829, 77.8%, and $598.48 for OS. OS had the largest number of payments (295,465 vs 24,246 for IR, 84,635 for VS, and 160,443 for IC) and greatest total payment amount. VS had a significantly higher corrected median payment amount ($463; P < .0001) than IR ($214) and IC ($99). Covidien and Sirtex Medical were the leading industry sponsors to IR, and 64.6% of IR payments were compensation for services other than consulting. There was no significant difference in median payment received per geographic region (P = .32).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  OS received the largest number and total payment amount, and VS received a significantly greater corrected median payment amount, versus IR and IC. As the Open Payments program continues to be implemented, it remains to be seen how this information will affect relationships among physicians, patients, and industry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Winthrop University Hospital, 259 1st St., Mineola, NY, 11501. Electronic address: andybaadh@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Amanjit S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Baadh
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Winthrop University Hospital, 259 1st St., Mineola, NY, 11501.
authors.forename: Palvir K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Baadh
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Winthrop University Hospital, 259 1st St., Mineola, NY, 11501.
authors.forename: Shahidul
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Winthrop University Hospital, 259 1st St., Mineola, NY, 11501.
authors.forename: Douglas S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Katz
mesh_terms: D000072096:Cardiologists / Q000191:economics; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D035881:Compensation and Redress; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D033161:Government Regulation; D019981:Health Care Sector / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D000072161:Orthopedic Surgeons / Q000191:economics; D015641:Radiography, Interventional / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D000072177:Radiologists / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D060926:Remuneration; D013038:Specialization; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000191:economics