Thomas Ahern
Cardiovascular Disease · la Jolla, CANPI 1073599858
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by speaking fees: $20,500 of the $30,041 with a category attached, or 68.2%. Lundbeck LLC accounts for 84.5% of it on its own, with 15 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $23,917 and has fallen 97.9% since, to $506 in 2022. Among cardiovascular disease clinicians in CA with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 124 payments — averaging $242.27 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Lundbeck LLC$25K
- Acutus Medical, Inc.$2K
- Boston Scientific$1K
- ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)$457
- Johnson & Johnson$322
- Amgen$200
- plus $545 from 10 others
Across 1 payment — averaging $487.50 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.
- Abbott$488
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$3,05010%
- Speaking & faculty fees$20,50068%
- Grants$5452%
- Travel & lodging$1,6886%
- Food & beverage$4,25814%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lundbeck LLC | 28 | $25,382 |
| Acutus Medical, Inc. | 17 | $1,784 |
| Boston Scientific | 6 | $1,352 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 20 | $457 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 21 | $322 |
| Amgen | 8 | $200 |
| Biotronik Inc. | 3 | $127 |
| Novartis | 5 | $117 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 4 | $72 |
| AstraZeneca | 3 | $54 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 3 | $50 |
| Pfizer | 2 | $33 |
| Philips North America LLC | 1 | $31 |
| Cvrx, Inc. | 1 | $25 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $22 |
| Bayer | 1 | $13 |
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.
- NORTHERA$25,217
- Watchman$750
- GENERAL - STRUCTURAL HEART$545
How this compares
$30,041 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 2,184 cardiovascular disease providers in California.
Other cardiovascular disease in la Jolla
- Eric Topolla Jolla$2.2M
- Pam Taubla Jolla$1.2M
- Douglas Gibsonla Jolla$727K
- Douglas Triffonla Jolla$176K
- Judith Swainla Jolla$151K
- Ted LoveHillsborough$102.8M
- Paul KurthSanta Barbara$6.1M
- Jason RogersSacramento$4.4M
- Matthew BudoffTorrance$3.6M
- Cathleen Bairey-MerzLos Angeles$1.2M
Where these figures come from
- Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
- Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.