Trends in research support and productivity in the changing environment of academic surgery.
BACKGROUND
We hypothesized that the changing environment of academic surgery has resulted in a decrease in surgical research funding and basic surgical research productivity of academic departments of surgery.


METHODS
Trends in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to Departments of Medicine and Surgery were analyzed from 1992 to 1999. To assess trends in research productivity, selected basic science journals were screened from 1988 to 1999 for the number of basic research publications where authors cited affiliation with a Department of Medicine or Surgery.


RESULTS
NIH funding to Schools of Medicine increased 5.9% per year from 1992 to 1999. Funding to Departments of Medicine increased 21.1% per year, whereas funding to Surgery increased 3.1% per year. As a percentage of total funding to medical schools, NIH funding to Departments of Surgery declined slightly and funding to Departments of Medicine increased 1% per year. The number of grants awarded to Schools of Medicine and Departments of Surgery and Medicine remained constant from 1992 to 1999. The number of publications in basic science journals trended up for both Departments of Surgery and Departments of Medicine. As a percentage of departmental totals, Departments of Surgery publications increased by 9.5% yearly and Departments of Medicine increased 1.5% per year.


CONCLUSIONS
Support for basic surgical research has been static. Despite static grant support, basic research productivity has increased for Departments of Surgery. Basic surgical research remains an integral part of academic surgery department activity.
Jackson
Heidi H
HH
Department of Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84132, USA.
Jackson
Jeffrey D
JD
Mulvihill
Sean J
SJ
Firpo
Matthew A
MA
Glasgow
Robert E
RE
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends*; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000639:trends*; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital; D014481:United States