Recent trends in NIH funding for top surgeon-scientists

• Published in: The American journal of surgery Vol. 222; no. 2; pp. 281 - 285
• Main Authors: Langston, Rebekah G., Zhao, Edward H., Wong, Ka Hin, Rodriguez, Analiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-08-2021; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Bone surgery; Career development planning; Careers; Departments; Education; Funding; Neurological diseases; Neurosurgery; Orthopedics; Professional development; Scientists; Surgeons; Sustainability; Trends; National institutes of health; Grant funding; Surgical research; Surgeon scientist; Surgery
• ISSN: 0002-9610; 1879-1883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2020.12.004

Concerns regarding the trajectory and long-term sustainability of the surgeon-scientist career path have been widely recognized.1–3 Today there is a lack of support for successful integration of basic science and surgical practice with surgical departments receiving a decreasing proportion of the total extramural funding granted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).2 Here, we examine funding trends within academic surgical and medical departments from 2009 to 2018 in order to assess how surgeon principal investigators rank compared to both their surgical and non-surgical peers. Additionally, medical departments tended to be granted larger awards than surgical departments (Fig. 3d). [...]the trend towards more funding being granted to non-clinicians is observed only in surgical departments. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation have implemented targeted research education and career development programs that have led to an increase in NIH-funded neurosurgeon scientists.5,6 In our analysis Neurosurgery had the most significant increase in number of surgeons in the top 10 departmental awardees over time, exemplifying the impact of these programs on future funding.