Radiologists land on low end of industry research money, study finds

AI in radiology may be a hotbed of research and development, but industry funding for AI-specific projects and to radiologists overall appears to be minimal, according to an analysis published April 16 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

In 2024, 5,782 industry payments totaling $90.4 million went to radiologists, representing roughly 1.1% of the total value, according to Ajay Malhotra, MD, from the Yale School of Medicine and colleagues from five other universities around the U.S. Their analysis found that while 189 of 898 radiologists received about 80% of the total payments that industry made for research, radiology's share decreased from 1.34% in 2019 to 1.06% in 2024.

"Given radiology’s integral role in bringing medical devices and imaging breakthroughs to market, we hypothesized that radiologist PIs would command a significant and growing share of industry research investment," the group said.

Using information available in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments Database of U.S. payments, the group assessed trends in the proportion of industry payments to radiologist principal investigators (PIs).

According to the findings, industry paid for that research under three categories:

1. Direct payments to physicians.
2. Covered recipient teaching hospitals receiving federal graduate medical education (GME) funding.
3. Noncovered entities (NCEs), which includes universities not receiving GME funding, contract research organizations (CROs), independent research institutes, research foundations, and charitable organizations.

Industry has been funding more over the years, the group found, also noting the following:

• Industry funded 50% of research in 2022, compared 38% in 2010.
• In 2024, 756,193 research payments with a total value of about $8.5 billion were recorded in the OPD. The majority was to NCEs (79%, about $6.7 billion), followed by teaching hospitals (20%, or $1.7 billion), and covered recipient physicians (1.1%, about $93 million).
• In 2024, a total of 898 unique radiologists received research payments. Some 174 received direct research payments ($4.6 million) as covered physicians, while 796 were listed as PIs for associated payments to hospitals or NCEs (72 appeared in both categories).
• Radiologists garnered $1.04 million in AI-specific research payments in 2024.

The analysis was restricted to research payments and excluded general payments, ownership interests, and consulting fees, according to the group. Their analysis also did not reflect research funded through mechanisms not requiring disclosure, such as equipment loans and software access.  

Regardless, "our study findings have implications for the radiology research enterprise," Malhotra and colleagues wrote. "As federal funding faces uncertainty, the specialty's relatively small share of industry research funding (1.1% in 2024) with a declining proportional share over time suggests limited alternative support."

Professional societies and academic departments may need to develop strategies to increase radiology's competitiveness for industry-sponsored research, particularly at teaching hospitals where funding lags behind NCEs, the group said.

Read the complete paper here.