Rheumatology research funding declined by over 20% since 2014, according to a report from Medscape summarizing findings from a recent analysis. In the study—published by Murayama et al in The Journal of Rheumatology—investigators used the Open Payments Database to analyze research payments distributed to rheumatologists directly, as well as to physicians or health-care companies associated with rheumatologist-led research. Compared with $1.4 million in 2014 and $4.6 million in 2016, direct payments to rheumatologists declined by 31% to about $976,000 in 2022. Further, in 2014 and 2015, rheumatologist-associated payments were $162.9 million and $217.7 million, respectively; in 2022, they declined by 24% to $124.1 million. Further, only a small number of influential rheumatologists may be receiving substantial amounts of research funding from industry. Finally, less than 3%—about $39 million—of all rheumatology-associated payments is designated for preclinical research. The investigators noted that their findings come after a 7.5% decrease in public-sector funding to the American College of Rheumatology was observed between 2014 and 2017. They concluded that the reduction in funding may impact the budgets for clinical trials, enrollment, screening, safety monitoring, and research publication—and could result in an inability to conduct needed research.