NIH Funding for Surgeon-Scientists in the US: What Is the Current Status?

Demblowski, Lindsay A.; Busse, Brad; Santangelo, George M.; Blakely, Andrew M.; Turner, Patricia L.; Hoyt, David B.; Zeiger, Martha A.

doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2020.12.015

Cited by 36 publications

(40 citation statements)

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“…The American College of Surgeons reported a slightly more favorable assessment of general surgeons, including trauma surgeons. They reported active NIH grants as of June 2020 by general surgeons accounted for $325 million of the extramural NIH budget with just over half awarded as R01 equivalent grants 2 . More specifically, trauma-related research represents only 2.9% of the total NIH extramural budget 7 despite being the leading cause of death in the United States for those aged 1 to 44 years old.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite awarding research scholarships for more than 20 years by many major surgical societies including EAST, there has been a progressive decline in the development of surgeon-scientists. As of 2020, only 0.7% of all US surgeons were NIH funded 2 . This has been attributed to a number of potential factors including increasing difficulty of acquiring NIH funding, clinical demands, decreasing institutional value of the surgeon-scientist, and declining interest of surgeons in applying for research awards.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…As of 2020, only 0.7% of all US surgeons were NIH funded. 2 This has been attributed to a number of potential factors including increasing difficulty of acquiring NIH funding, clinical demands, decreasing institutional value of the surgeonscientist, and declining interest of surgeons in applying for research awards. Whereas NIH dollars for medical specialties has remained about $3.2 billion per year, total dollars awarded to surgeons has decreased $3 million per year resulting in only $292 million in 2016.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Growing the Next Generation of Trauma Surgeon Scientists – Reflections on 20 Years of Research Investment

Callcut¹,

Dixon²,

Smith³

et al. 2022

J Trauma Acute Care Surg

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INTRODUCTION:The Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma mission includes fostering research and providing career development opportunities. Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma has awarded for 20 years a research scholarship to a promising young investigator. The research mentorship efforts were expanded 5 years ago with the INVEST-C Hack-a-thon. INVEST-C provides an intensive, short-term engagement to propel junior faculty toward establishing research independence. This study investigates the impact of these programs on academic productivity. METHODS: Pubmed records, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Reporter data, and SCOPUS h-index were acquired for all scholarship (SCH) awardees from 2002 to 2021 (n = 20) and all INVEST-C (INV) participants (2017-2020, n = 19). Current type of practice, total number of funding awards, and timing of first award were ascertained. INVEST-C participants were also surveyed on an annual basis to track their progress. Medians (interquartile range [IQR]) are reported and compared (analysis of variance). RESULTS:Median publications (PUBs) of SCH awardees were 56 (IQR, 33-88), h-index was 16 (IQR, 12-21), and 25% of awardees have ≥1 NIH grant since their SCH. Among the last 10 awardees with a minimum of 2 years from SCH, 40% have received an NIH award compared with a mean NIH funding rate of 18.5% over the same period. For those remaining in academics (90% SCH), PUBs were higher for those >5 years (66 [IQR,) versus <5 years from their ; p = 0.05), but there was no difference in h-index (16 [IQR, 14-25] vs. 15 [9-19], p = NS). Comparing the most recent 5 years of SCH to INV group, there was no difference in academic productivity as measured by total PUBs (SCH, 33 [IQR, vs. INV, 34 [IQR,; p = 0.7) or h-index (INV, 9 [IQR,(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14); p = 0.1). However, no attendee held research funding before INV, but 31.6% (6 of 19 attendees) have subsequently acquired ≥1 funding award (11 non-NIH, 1 NIH) in the short interval since participation. CONCLUSION:Investments in research activities have translated to significant extramural funding. Those in the last 5 years have been particularly fruitful with INV participants already achieving equal median academic productivity to SCH recipients.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Growing the Next Generation of Trauma Surgeon Scientists – Reflections on 20 Years of Research Investment

Callcut¹,

Dixon²,

Smith³

et al. 2022

J Trauma Acute Care Surg

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“…6 A recent uplifting update by Demblowski and colleagues demonstrated an increase in the proportion of funded surgeons over the past decade, with maintenance of R-series funding in that time period. 7 Despite this encouraging improvement in surgical funding and the far-reaching impact that surgeon-scientists have made in advancing medical therapies, the proportion of surgeons receiving funding through the NIH does not reflect the number of clinically active surgeons in the workforce. 8 This inconsistency can be explained by the known data that surgeon-scientists apply for fewer grants compared to nonsurgical investigators and is exacerbated by the lack of surgeon representation on NIH study sections.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Predictors of Successful Early Career to Independent Funding Conversion Among Surgeon-Scientists

Keswani

Short

Mehl

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Introduction The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides research funding to scientists at different stages of their career through a range of grant awards. Early-stage researchers are eligible for mentored Career Development (K) awards, to aid in the transition to independent NIH funding. Factors such as education, subspecialty, and time to funding have been studied as predictors of obtaining independent awards in nonsurgical specialties. However, in surgery, the importance of these factors has yet to be clearly elucidated. We aim to identify predictors of K to independent award conversion among surgeon-scientists to understand how to better support early-stage researchers transitioning to independent careers. Materials and Methods In July 2020, the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools database was queried for individuals affiliated with surgery departments who received NIH Career Development Awards (between 2000 and 2020). The following factors were analyzed: publications, institution, degrees, year of completion of training, and gender. Results Between 2000 and 2020, 228 surgeons received K Awards, of which 44% transitioned to independent funding. On average, surgeons received a K award 4.0 years after completing fellowship training and an independent award 5.4 years after receiving a K grant. The time to receiving a K award was predictive of successfully achieving independent funding, and those with independent funding had a significantly greater number of publications per year of their K-award. Conclusion Surgeons successful in transitioning to independent NIH awards do so approximately 9 years after finishing fellowship. Publication track record is the main factor associated with successful conversion from a K award. Surgery departments should emphasize manuscript productivity and develop strategies to minimize time to independent funding to help K-awardees begin independent research careers.

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“…Anesthesiology, although always one of the lower-ranked specialties in NIH funding, has had a recent decline in median NIH funding, whereas NIH funding has increased both in surgical fields and overall. [2][3][4][5] Although the NIH does not report grant success rates for individuals or by specialty, success for all funding applications in 2020 was 22.7%, a rate that has been stable over the last 10 years, and the number of individuals receiving their first R01-equivalent grant increased by 19% between 2010 and 2020. 3,6 It is reasonable to infer that it is increasingly difficult for researchers in anesthesiology to receive NIH funding and that they are receiving a shrinking piece of a growing pie over time.…”

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confidence: 99%