An analysis of the trends and distribution of political contributions from hematologists and oncologists in the United States.

Abstract

e23041 Background: In today's increasingly tumultuous political landscape, understanding how healthcare providers are engaging the system to contribute to shaping the future of healthcare policy has become increasingly important. Policy can directly influence funding priorities, research agendas, and regulations for providers. This cross-sectional study aims to assess political contributions made by hematologists and oncologists across the United States from 2009-2022. Methods: Political donations to the U.S. Presidential, Senate, and House of Representatives campaigns made by hematologists and oncologists between 2009-2022 were collected from the Federal Election Commission database. Keywords used in the occupation search query were “oncologist”, “hematologist”, “oncology”, and “hematology”; the raw data was filtered to remove non-physicians. Each individual contribution was addressed to a recipient committee, which were characterized as “Democratic”, “Republican”, or “Independent”. Results: From 2009 to 2022, a total of 2889 contributions were made by hematologists and oncologists to campaigns for presidential and national legislative campaigns grossing a total of 1,324,397 with a mean donation value of $458 per contribution. Of campaign contributions, 68% ( $905,388), 31% ($405,257), and 1% ($13,751) went to democratic, republican, and independent campaigns respectively. The total number of contributions increased from 77 totaling a sum of $48,902 in 2009 to 203 totaling a sum of $107,281 in 2022. Republicans experienced an increase in total dollar amount of contributions of 9.42% from 2009 to 2022. The top five states with the highest contributions in dollar amount were California, Texas, Maryland, Florida, and Georgia, in descending order. Conclusions: The total political contribution amount made by hematologists and oncologists in the United States has increased from 2009 to 2022. Further investigation of how physician contributions influence the development and implementation of healthcare policies is imperative.