The majority of payments, nearly $11 million, went to fellows working in procedural intensive subspecialties, including interventional cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology, according to the study originally published in JAMA.
Payments from devicemakers go toward food, travel or a consultation from a drug or devicemaker.
In the year before fellowship graduation, 80% of proceduralists and 67% of nonprocedural cardiologists received a payment, with the median for proceduralists totaling $1,801 and the median for general cardiologists and for those who specialized in congenital heart disease, advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology totaling $198.
The authors also found that physicians who accepted payment as fellows were more likely to receive industry payments within two to five years after graduation, with 96% of proceduralists and 81% of those in nonprocedural subspecialties receiving payments totaling $37 million three years after fellowship.
Authors wrote that these payments can “seriously compromise” professional relationships and that stronger policies may be needed to curtail device industry payments.
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