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The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic affecting millions of people worldwide. Solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients are probably at higher risk of severe infection and associated complications from COVID-19. Data on clinical outcomes of COVID-19 infection in SOT recipients are limited. Using the TriNetX database, patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 from January 20, 2020, to July 7, 2020, were included in the study. We compared clinical outcomes comprising hospitalization, need for critical care services, intubation, and mortality among SOT recipients and patients without SOT. Of 30,573 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients, 288 had SOT. Patients with SOT were more likely to be hospitalized (37.2% vs. 12.2%; p < 0.0001), needed critical care services (6.9% vs. 2.3%; p < 0.0001), needed intubation (7.9% vs. 2.0%; p < 0.0001), and had a higher 30-day mortality (11.1% vs. 3.8%; p < 0.0001). Patients in the transplant group were older (55.4 vs. 47.6 years; p < 0.0001) and had a higher prevalence of medical co-morbidities. SOT recipients are at significant risk of adverse COVID-19 related outcomes, including hospitalization, need for critical care services, and 30-day mortality, likely due to multiple co-morbid conditions.

Background and objectives Sleep medicine has been one of the fastest-growing medical fields in recent years. The industry plays a big role in developing new medications and devices for both diagnosis and treatment of sleep-related problems. We analyzed payments made by industry to physicians from 2014 through 2018 based on the Open Payments Program data. Methods Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payment Program and American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology databases were explored to elicit financial relationships between industry and sleep neurologists. Results Payments made by industry to sleep neurologists have been steadily increasing from 2014 through 2018. Approximately 16% to 22% of sleep certified neurologists received payments from industry during the study period. Interestingly, the payments made to the top 10% of the sleep physicians contributed approximately 85% to 96% of the total payments. The top two categories to which the highest payments were made were compensation for services and royalty and/or licensing fees. Silenor® (doxepin), Xyrem® (sodium oxybate), Aptiom® (eslicarbazepine acetate), Belsomra® (suvorexant), and Fycompa® (perampanel) were most of the drugs, which made the highest payments, that got approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the last decade. Conclusions It seems that the industry is spending significant amounts of money in educating the physicians and in marketing the newer drugs. This analysis of the data on payments from industry is very useful in identifying any potential conflicts of interest from physicians. Further analyses are needed to study the trends of physician practice behavior and decision making.