title: The effect of federal funding on clinical productivity: the price of academics.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research is time consuming and expensive. To offset this expense, federal agencies fund the research, but the financial impact of funded research on clinical surgical productivity has not been studied. The objective is to determine departmental impact of federal funding.
  
  
  METHODS
  The relative value units, professional revenue, and funding were evaluated for clinical Faculty in the Surgery Department for fiscal year 2008. Means were compared using t test, and significance was defined as p<0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Department had 61 clinical surgeons. The Department was divided into three groups based on research funding: unfunded, industry funded, and federally funded. Surgeons with both federal funding and other funding were only included in the federally funded group. There were 42 unfunded, 8 industry funded, and 11 federally funded surgeons. The relative value units, professional revenue, and salary with benefits of the three groups were compared.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Federal funding is associated with a significant reduction in clinical work and clinical reimbursement. Federally funded research results in a net loss of revenue for the Surgery Department. The net effect is that the Surgery Department sponsors Federal Research and this has not been previously reported in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33101, USA. mark@miami.edu
authors.forename: Mark M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: McKenney
authors.forename: Alan S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Livingstone
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schulman
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000078329:Workforce