title: National institutes of health funding for surgical research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective was to compare National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding rates and application success rates among surgeon and nonsurgeon-scientists over the past 2 decades.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Surgeons may be capable of accelerating the translation of basic research into new clinical therapies. Nevertheless, most surgeon-scientists believe they are at a disadvantage in competing for peer-reviewed funding, despite a recent emphasis on "translational science" by organizations such as the NIH.
  
  
  METHODS
  We accessed databases from the NIH and the American Association of Medical Colleges.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although total competing NIH awards rose 79.2% from 5608 to 10,052, the much smaller number of surgical awards increased only by 41.4% from 157 to 222. There was a small but statistically significant difference between total NIH and surgical application success rates (29% vs. 25%, P < 0.01). However, the persistently low percent of NIH funding going to surgical investigators was due primarily to the very small number of surgical applications, and to a much smaller increase in the absolute number of applications over time (464 vs. 23,847). As a result, the number of grants per 100 faculty members was more than 4 times higher among nonsurgical than surgical faculties at US medical schools.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NIH funding to academic surgeons is declining relative to their nonsurgical colleagues. This trend will likely be reversed only by an increase in the number of grant applications submitted by surgeon-scientists. Structural changes in surgical training programs, and in the economics of academic surgery, may support a greater contribution of surgeon-scientists to the success of translational research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Amod
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tendulkar
authors.forename: Noy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birger
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Mark B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ratcliffe
mesh_terms: D001363:Awards and Prizes; D013502:General Surgery / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D017712:Peer Review, Research; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States