Characteristics of reported industry payments to neurosurgeons from 2019 to 2022: The impact of COVID-19

Abstract

Objective

Neurosurgeons have long held financial relationships with pharmaceutical and surgical device companies. While industry partnerships drive innovation, there is concern that these collaborations may negatively influence patient care. In response, stakeholders have called for increased monitoring of these relationships. This study aims to provide an up-to-date review of the industry payments to neurosurgeons and how COVID-19 has impacted these payments.

Methods

A retrospective study was performed using data from the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments Database (1/1/19–12/31/23). Neurosurgeons were identified using the taxonomy code, 207T00000X. Data collected included the number of payments, purpose, total value, and mean value per year.

Results

From 2019 to 2023, 362,270 industry payments were made to 7,846 unique neurosurgeons for a total of $479,072,106. The most common types of payments were for food and beverage (72.7 %), travel and lodging (15.2 %), consulting fees (5.85 %), royalties and licensing (3.02 %), and services other than consulting (1.86 %), while the largest contributors to total payment value were payments for royalties and licensing (57.6 %), consulting fees (14.5 %), acquisitions (12.8 %), services other than consulting (5.00 %), and travel and lodging (3.89 %). Overall, the total amount paid to neurosurgeons decreased during the COVID-19 years (2020–2021) compared to 2019 but rose again in 2022.

Conclusion

Neurosurgeons maintain an active financial partnership with industry. Similar to prior reports, payments related to product development comprised the majority of payment value, while payments for food and beverage were the most common. The years of COVID-19, particularly 2020, had a substantial impact on the number, value amount, and subcategory distribution of industry payments made to neurosurgeons. Future investigations of these financial ties on practice, research, and innovation are warranted.