Abstract
BackgroundIntense interest surrounds the recent expansion of US National Institutes of Health (NIH) budgets as part of economic stimulus legislation. However, the relationship between NIH funding and cardiovascular disease research is poorly understood, making the likely impact of this policy change unclear.MethodsThe National Library of Medicine's PubMed database was searched for articles published from 1996 to 2006, originating from U.S. institutions, and containing the phrases “cardiolog,” “cardiovascular,” or “cardiac,” in the first author's department. Research methodology, journal of publication, journal impact factor, and receipt of NIH funding were recorded. Differences in means and trends were tested with t-tests and linear regression, respectively, with P≤0.05 for significance.ResultsOf 117,643 world cardiovascular articles, 36,684 (31.2%) originated from the U.S., of which 10,293 (28.1%) received NIH funding. The NIH funded 40.1% of U.S. basic science articles, 20.3% of overall clinical trials, 18.1% of randomized-controlled, and 12.2% of multicenter clinical trials. NIH-funded and total articles grew significantly (65 articles/year, P<0.001 and 218 articles/year, P<0.001, respectively). The proportion of articles receiving NIH funding was stable, but grew significantly for basic science and clinical trials (0.87%/year, P<0.001 and 0.67%/year, P = 0.029, respectively). NIH-funded articles had greater journal impact factors than non NIH-funded articles (5.76 vs. 3.71, P<0.001).ConclusionsNIH influence on U.S. cardiovascular research expanded in the past decade, during the period of NIH budget doubling. A substantial fraction of research is now directly funded and thus likely sensitive to budget fluctuations, particularly in basic science research. NIH funding predicts greater journal impact.
Highlights
In a speech given at the 2006 American Heart Association national meeting, Dr Elias A
The purpose of this study was to determine the overall volume of world and U.S cardiovascular research articles, and the component of U.S cardiovascular articles that did and did not receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding during the eleven years from 1996 to 2006
The contributions of individual NIH institutes were examined to determine which ones had budgets and agendas that were most supportive of cardiovascular research. These results provide an overview of the NIH funding landscape in cardiovascular disease research and provide important information for policymakers, research leaders, and clinical investigators who are involved with research grants, and for practicing clinicians interested in continued benefits provided by research
Summary
In a speech given at the 2006 American Heart Association national meeting, Dr Elias A. Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), emphasized the tremendous benefit derived from prior government funding of clinical research. Dr Zerhouni used coronary artery disease as an example, where research has prevented one million early deaths at a cost of supporting the NIH of $3.70 per American per year. Despite these proven benefits, the likelihood of an investigator obtaining NIH research funding dropped by a third from 2003 to 2006 [1]. Intense interest surrounds the recent expansion of US National Institutes of Health (NIH) budgets as part of economic stimulus legislation. The relationship between NIH funding and cardiovascular disease research is poorly understood, making the likely impact of this policy change unclear
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