Trends in Industry-Sponsored Research Payments to Emergency Medicine Principal Investigators

Industry-sponsored research payments (ISRPs) to physicians through noncovered entities (NCEs) are a widespread practice in the United States. However, there has been limited literature examining this funding mechanism among emergency physicians.

To describe the characteristics and trends in ISRPs to emergency physicians in the United States from 2015 to 2023.

We performed a retrospective analysis on data from the Open Payments database to examine ISRPs to principal investigators (PIs) identified as emergency physicians. Payments were categorized as being made directly to the physician, through a teaching hospital, or an NCE. Descriptive statistics and linear regression using a generalized estimating equation were used to analyze trends in payments.

A total of $585.8 million ISRPs were made to emergency physician PIs between 2015 and 2023. Yearly payments increased from $64.6 million to $113.2 million from 2015 to 2023. Payments to NCEs increased from $54.7 million to $108.2 million. Males represented most PIs receiving funding through NCEs (151/189 in 2023), and among them there was a significant decrease in the number of PIs (-21%, p < 0.01) and significant increases in the total (166%, p < 0.05) and median value of payments (221%, p < 0.001). The 10 largest manufacturer sponsors accounted for more than a half of the ISRPs to NCEs with emergency medicine (EM) PIs.

Between 2015 and 2023, ISRPs to NCEs with EM PIs increased to more than $100 million. A small number of sponsors accounted for the majority of ISRPs to EM PIs.