Industry-Sponsored Research Payments in Radiology: A National Open Payments Analysis

Industry funding for research is important in the era of decreasing federal research support. The goal of this study was to assess the trends in the proportion of industry research payments to radiologists.

Research payment data from industry was gathered from the CMS Open Payments Database, for the years from 2019 to 2024. Overall industry payments in three categories were determined as well as proportion to radiologist principal investigators (PIs): (1) direct payments to physicians, (2) covered recipient teaching hospital, and (3) noncovered entities. The distribution of payments in 2024 was analyzed according to industry payors, recipient physicians, and recipient noncovered entities.

Of all research payments in 2024, 5,782 (0.76%) payments were made to radiologists, with a total value of $90.4 million (1.1% share of the total value). Noncovered recipient entities with 599 associated PIs received $64.2 million (1.0% of all specialties), covered recipient teaching hospitals with 257 PIs received $21.6 million (1.3% of all specialties), and 174 covered recipient radiologists received $4.6 million (4.9% of all specialties) in direct research payments. The top 20th percentile of radiologists (189 of 898) received roughly 80% of the total industry payments. Of all research payments, the proportion in radiology (radiology's share) decreased from 1.34% ($89.1 million of $6,641.7 million) in 2019 to 1.06% ($90.4 million of $8,515.6 million; P = .04) in 2024. In an exploratory analysis, only $1.04 million in artificial intelligence-specific research payments were made to radiologists (1.1% of all payments to radiologists).

Radiology's relatively small share of industry research funding (1.1% in 2024) with a declining proportional share over time suggests limited research support. The majority of funding flows through noncovered entities rather than teaching hospitals, and significant gender disparities persist. Professional societies and academic departments may need to develop strategies to increase radiology's competitiveness for industry-sponsored research, particularly at teaching hospitals.