More than two-thirds of cardiology fellows receive industry payments, according to a study published as a research letter July 15 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The payments come from pharmaceutical and device companies in the form of meals and travel expenses associated with industry trainings, TCTMD reported July 16.
Researchers from the San Francisco School of Medicine and the John Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore analyzed data from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and Open Payments databases. They reviewed payments, unrelated to research, given to 5,533 early-career cardiologists between July 2014 and June 2021.
Of cardiology fellows, the study found 67% of those in non-procedural specialties and 80% in procedural specialties received industry payments in the year before graduating.
Post-graduation, 81% of non-procedural cardiologists and 96% of procedural cardiologists continued to receive industry payments, according to the researchers.