Industry payments to allergists and clinical immunologists in the United States during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Abstract

In the global movement to enhance transparency in financial relationships between physicians and the healthcare industry, almost all payments from pharmaceutical and medical device companies to physicians in the United States have been publicly disclosed in the Open Payments Database since 2013.1 Allergists and clinical immunologists are experts who received one of the largest per-physician general payments in the country in 2015.2 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have limited financial interaction between the healthcare industry and these experts, but few studies have investigated the trend in industry payments related to allergology and immunology during the COVID-19 pandemic.