ArticleSurgical endoscopy2025
Trends in industry payments and volume and distribution of robot-assisted surgeries.
Article in Surgical endoscopy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Evaluating safety and quality of robotic-assisted gastric cancer surgery: meta-analysis and meta-regression.BJS open · 2025Pooled it
- Receipt of Industry Payments and Surgeons' Adoption of Robotic-Assisted Surgery.JAMA network open · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundConsiderable evidence links pharmaceutical industry payments to health providers' over-prescribing behavior. In response, public policies were enacted to mitigate this effect. However, there is limited evidence examining surgical device industry payments and surgeons' utilization of robot-assisted surgeries (RAS). This study assessed the relationship between industry payments to healthcare providers and the usage of RAS.
methodsUsing 2015-2020 data from the CMS "Sunshine" Open Payments Database and New York State's (NYS) Statewide hospital discharge databases, we assessed temporal and spatial relationships between industry payments to hospitals and surgeons and volumes of RAS.
resultsDuring 2015-2020, general surgery robotic device manufacturers paid providers more than $236 M nationwide. The highest proportion of payments was made toward "Education and training" (66.6%) and "Food and travel" (20.6%). In NYS, gastrointestinal (GI) RAS volume steadily increased by 182% (2015-2019, p < 0.01), while there was a 150% increase in general surgeon payments. Genitourinary (GU) and gynecological (GYN) surgeon payments remained unchanged but GU and GYN RAS volume increased by 17% and 75%, respectively, during this period (p < 0.05). Approximately, 93% of payments and 98% of abdomen and pelvic RAS in NYS were concentrated in metropolitan or non-rural counties.
conclusionsWith increasing payments from robotic device companies toward surgeon education and training, the use of RAS is likely to continue to rise in the long term. Unbiased and non-industry-funded studies examining RAS effect on surgeon behavior and patient outcomes are imperative to ensure system efficiency and patient safety.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.