Table 2.

Changes in industry payments to physicians between 2018 and 2020

Types of industry payments	2018	2019	2020
Total*
No of physicians	350 520	345 789	267 463
No of payments	7 761 986	7 492 724	4 117 482
Total payment value	$1047 million	$1115 million	$626 million
Type of non-research payments
Meals:
No of physicians	342 178	337 595	254 448
No (%) of payments	6 915 047 (89.1)	6 642 500 (88.7)	3 710 716 (90.1)
Total payment value (% of main total)	$162 million (15.5)	$163 million (14.6)	$78 million (12.5)
Travel:
No of physicians	44 709	45 458	20 204
No (%) of payments	396 793 (5.1)	422 708 (5.6)	112 314 (2.7)
Total payment value (% of main total)	$127 million (12.1)	$138 million (12.4)	$31 million (5.0)
Consulting:
No of physicians	21 242	23 435	19 054
No (%) of payments	96 215 (1.2)	99 859 (1.3)	93 460 (2.3)
Total payment value (% of main total)	$290 million (27.7)	$305 million (27.4)	$240 million (38.3)
Speaking fee
No of physicians	21 947	20 172	16 317
No (%) of payments	174 745 (2.3)	179 202 (2.4)	128 550 (3.1)
Total payment value (% of main total)	$393 million (37.5)	$421 million (37.8)	$217 million (34.7)
Honorariums
No of physicians	3812	4331	3548
No (%) of payments	10 733 (0.1)	12 782 (0.2)	10 367 (0.3)
Total payment value (% of main total)	$27 million (2.6)	$31 million (2.8)	$19 million (3.0)
Others†
No of physicians	79 718	76 435	43 983
No (%) of payments	168 453 (2.2)	135 673 (1.8)	62 075 (1.5)
Total payment value (% of main total)	$47 million (4.5)	$57 million (5.1)	$40 million (6.4)

$1.00=£0.86; €1.00.

*Research payments, royalty, or license, and ownership interests such as stocks and partnership shares were not included in this analysis.

†Others include education, grant, gifts, entertainment, and space rental or facility fees.