More than 40% of pediatricians received industry payment in 2014

(HealthDay)—In 2014 there were 244,915 industry payments to general pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists, totaling more than $32 million, according to a study published online May 6 in Pediatrics.

Kavita Parikh, M.D., from the Children's National Medical Center and George Washington School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional analysis of Open Payments data from 2014. They described payments from industry to physicians caring for children as well as the characteristics of those payments.

The researchers identified 9,638,825 payments to physicians, totaling $1,186,217,157. Overall, 244,915 payments were made to general pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists, totaling more than $32 million. The median individual payment to general pediatricians was $14.36, with a median total pay of $89 per general pediatrician. General pediatricians accounted for 1.7 and 0.9 percent of total payments and the sum of payments, respectively. The highest percentage of pediatric physicians receiving payment was found to be developmental pediatricians; the highest median payment was to pediatric endocrinologists. Medications for attention-deficient/hyperactivity disorder and vaccinations were the most highly marketed.

"More than 40 percent of pediatricians received payments from industry in 2014, a lower percentage than family physicians or internists," the authors write. "Most payments were associated with medications that treat attention-deficient/hyperactivity disorder and vaccinations."