Industry-Sponsored Research Funding to Urologists in the United States Between 2014 and 2022

Urologists face challenges in obtaining public research funding, leading to increasing reliance on the industry for research support. This study aimed to examine the extent and trends in industry-sponsored research payments to urologists from 2014 to 2022 in the United States.

We identified all US urologists using the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services National Plan and Provider Enumeration System database and extracted their industry-sponsored research payments data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments Database. We performed descriptive analyses of the payments data.

Among 13,902 US urologists, 1330 (9.6%) received at least 1 industry-sponsored research payment. Urologists received $605.1 million between 2014 and 2022. Of all research payments, 98.7% ($597.4 million) were associated research payments for research where urologists served as principal investigators. The top 10% of urologists in research payments received 79.3% ($480.0 million) of total research payments. Only 0.4% ($2.3 million) of research payments were for preclinical research, whereas registered clinical trials totaled $159.0 million (26.3% of all research payments). The annual value of research payments increased from $35.2 million in 2014 to $101.7 million in 2022. The average percentage change in total payments showed a significant annual increase of 13.9% (95% CI, 11.6%-16.3%; P < .001) in value. There was no significant trend in the number of urologists receiving research payments.

Industry-sponsored research payments to urologists are substantial and have increased in both payment amount and number over time.