Has David Nelson, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $8,763 in general payments to David Nelson, MD across 38 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean David Nelson, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about David Nelson, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

David Nelson, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Dallas, TXNPI 1407299761

Payments from drug & device makers

$8,763in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 38 payments — averaging $230.60 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Intuitive Surgical$6K
Merck$2K
Atricure, Inc.$432
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$305
Abiomed$152
On Target Laboratories, Inc$135
plus $273 from 4 others

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$1,79420%
Food & beverage$1,41416%
Education$5,55563%

General payments by program year

Who reported the general payments

Companies are grouped under their corporate parent — a single manufacturer often files under several CMS reporting entities. Research and ownership payments are counted separately and are not in this table.

Company	Payments	Total
Intuitive Surgical	8	$5,615
Merck	12	$1,851
Atricure, Inc.	6	$432
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	1	$305
Abiomed	1	$152
On Target Laboratories, Inc	2	$135
ERBE USA Inc	1	$82
Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.	4	$81
Stryker	2	$56
AstraZeneca	1	$53

What the payments were tied to

Products named in the reported payments. Only payments of $100 or more are attributed here — the typical reported payment nationally is a meal worth about $16, and listing those product-by-product would be noise.

Da Vinci Surgical System$3,490
DAVINCI XI$2,000
ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$167
SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$167
Impella$152
ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM (CRYO2)$103

How this compares

$8,763 in reported general payments places this provider in the 55th percentile of 424 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Texas.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Texas →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$45,076

Medicare patients

Services billed

147

What this is not: this is the amount Original Medicare Part B allowed for services this provider billed in 2024. It is not their income. It excludes Medicare Advantage — now more than half of all Medicare enrollment — along with Medicaid and all commercial insurance, and it is gross practice revenue before staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums. CMS also suppresses any figure covering ten or fewer patients, so low-volume providers appear smaller than they are.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Dallas

Robert HebelerDallas$1.2M
Dan MeyerDallas$518K
Todd DeweyDallas$389K
Gary SchwartzDallas$317K
Matthais PeltzDallas$279K
Michael WaitDallas$245K
Michael JessenDallas$177K
Juan MachannafordDallas$164K
Aldo Rafael-YarihuamanDallas$142K
Robert SmithPlano$2.9M

See the full list for Texas →

Where these figures come from

Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
Billing: Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, data year 2024. Original Medicare Part B only.
Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.

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