Characteristics of the top 100 cardiologists who received the largest total amounts of payments from 2016 to 2019
| Variables | Number of cardiologists |
| Participation in creation of cardiology clinical practice guidelines, n (%) | |
| Clinical practice guideline authors | 66 (66.0) |
| Non-guideline author cardiologists | 34 (34.0) |
| Board membership | |
| Executive board members | 18 (18.0) |
| Non-board members | 82 (82.0) |
| Positions at cardiologists’ affiliations | |
| Full professor | 68 (68.0) |
| Department director at a hospital | 12 (12.0) |
| Hospital/clinic director | 11 (11.0) |
| Associate or assistant professor | 6 (6.0) |
| Other positions (eg, chief advisor, consultant and vice hospital director) | 3 (3.0) |