Thomas Gildea, MD
Pulmonary Disease · Cleveland, OHNPI 1164485959
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — travel and lodging (28.3%), consulting fees and speaking fees — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 24 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 37.1% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $19,046 and has fallen 91.8% since, to $1,565 in 2025. Among pulmonary disease clinicians in OH with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 189 payments — averaging $363.64 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$25K
- Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.$12K
- Medtronic$8K
- Cook Incorporated$8K
- Johnson & Johnson$8K
- Verathon Inc.$2K
- plus $5K from 18 others
Across 20 payments — averaging $4291.50 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.
- Johnson & Johnson$41K
- Auris Health, Inc.$17K
- Medtronic$16K
- Ethicon Endo-surgery Inc.$12K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$18,72627%
- Speaking & faculty fees$18,67527%
- Travel & lodging$19,46428%
- Food & beverage$5,8629%
- Education$6,0009%
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 | 73 | $25,465 |
| Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. | 11 | $11,674 |
| Medtronic | 24 | $8,238 |
| Cook Incorporated | 2 | $8,062 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 22 | $7,891 |
| Verathon Inc. | 3 | $2,350 |
| Covidien LP | 10 | $1,933 |
| Concordia Laboratories Inc. | 1 | $600 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 4 | $564 |
| Boston Scientific | 15 | $546 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 6 | $293 |
| Visionair Solutions, LLC | 1 | $188 |
| Pulmonx Corporation | 3 | $162 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 2 | $148 |
| Noah Medical Corporation | 1 | $122 |
| Body Vision Medical Inc. | 1 | $111 |
| Galvanize Therapeutics, Inc | 2 | $111 |
| Steris Corporation | 1 | $89 |
| Pinnacle Biologics, Inc | 2 | $53 |
| Pleural Dynamics Inc. | 1 | $49 |
| BD | 1 | $23 |
| Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Merck | 1 | $19 |
| Ethicon Endo-surgery Inc. | 1 | $17 |
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 SP$11,600
- Wayne$8,062
- ILLUMISITE$7,358
- Monarch Platform$6,529
- Da Vinci Surgical System$6,280
- ION$6,250
- Bronchoscope$2,350
- superDimension$2,250
- MONARCH$760
- Photofrin$600
- Cook Medical General Surgery$463
- NEUWAVE Flex Microwave Ablation System$312
- Cios Spin$223
- Visionair Patient Specific Airway Stent$188
- ZEPHYR DELIVERY CATHETER$125
- PULMONX CHARTIS TABLET CONSOLE$125
- ZEPHYR ENDOBRONCHIAL VALVE$125
- CHARTIS CATHETER$125
- GALAXY$122
- LungVision$111
How this compares
$68,727 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 571 pulmonary disease providers in Ohio.
Medicare billing
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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Azithromycin | 13 | $134 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other pulmonary disease in Cleveland
- Kristin HighlandCleveland$551K
- Joseph CiceniaCleveland$350K
- Michael MachuzakCleveland$286K
- Marie BudevCleveland$159K
- Leslie TolleCleveland$136K
- Elliott DasenbrookCleveland$114K
- James StollerCleveland$101K
- Gustavo Heresi DavilaCleveland$98K
- Bryan BennCleveland$96K
- Daniel CulverCleveland$68K
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.