Are Industry Payments for Robotic Surgery Cause for Concern?

Patients typically rely on physician recommendations to choose the right medical and surgical treatments, expecting their physicians to act in the patient's best interest rather than the physician's own financial interest. 1The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began collecting and publicly reporting industry payments to physicians due to concerns that payments, which supported research and education as well as travel, entertainment, and other activities, could unduly influence treatment decisions. 2Research based on the Open Payments data has found evidence that industry