Medtronic has publicly disclosed its U.S. physician relationships that result in aggregate compensation above $5,000 in each calendar year, revealing that the company paid out more than $15.7 million in the first quarter of 2010, which ended March 31.

The physician registry includes the names of U.S. physicians who have received the minimum compensation, along with the services they provided and the amount they were paid by Medtronic. The registry will be updated quarterly.

While orthopedic specialists and surgeons reaped the vast majority of the charges—$14.2 million—electrophysiologists earned about $500,000 from the device maker.

The Minneapolis-based company said it will voluntarily post on the public physician payment registry payment data for all U.S. physicians (MDs, DOs, MBBSs, DDSs) on a quarterly basis. Medtronic said that participation in the following four activities will bring a physician within our definition of reportable information and it will be posted on the physician payment registry:

• Engagement in clinical practice (diagnose, advise or treat patients).
• Performance of academic or sponsored (private, charity, government) medical (basic medical science, clinical, medical economic or social) research.
• Lecture (didactic or panel participant for academic or sponsored venues) on medical (basic medical science, clinical, medical economic or social) topics to patients or healthcare providers, where the physician presents him/herself as a clinician and not as an inventor or product developer.
• Publish (original research, reviews or editorials) on medical (basic medical science, clinical, medical economic or social) topics via publication media (peer- and non-peer-reviewed medical journals, internet websites, local, national or international media outlets) intended to inform patients or healthcare practitioners.