Ratcliffe Mark B, Howard Cheryl, Mann Michael, del Nido Pedro
Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2008 Aug;136(2):392-7; discussion 398-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2008.04.009. Epub 2008 Jun 2.
Our objective was determine the status of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for cardiothoracic surgery research.
(1) Funding from the NIH is critical if new procedures and devices are to be developed. (2) The success rate for NIH applications coming from cardiothoracic surgery faculty is thought to be inferior. (3) Per capita numbers of surgical NIH application and awards and application success rate have recently been found to be below the average for the NIH.
Application and award data for full-time academic cardiothoracic surgeons were obtained by matching records in the NIH IMPAC II database with membership rosters of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Manpower data were obtained from 1999, 2003, and 2005 reports of the STS/AATS Workforce committee. Society membership was used as a surrogate for investigator experience.
The number of NIH applications has increased steeply in the past 7 years; however, the number of awards has remained constant. This pattern was observed for surgery and cardiothoracic surgery as well. Until 2003, the cardiothoracic surgery application success rate was actually higher than that of surgery and the NIH as a whole (between 25% and 40%). Since then, however, the cardiothoracic surgery application success rate has declined steeply and is now only 14%. NIH applications and awards per 100 cardiothoracic surgeons, although similar to those of surgery, are very much less than the NIH as a whole.
Per capita NIH funding of cardiothoracic surgeons is very much less than that of the NIH as a whole. The primary cause is the low per capita number of applications submitted by cardiothoracic surgeons. Junior cardiothoracic faculty should be encouraged to apply for career development awards. However, since the ability to shift cost from clinical to academic faculty is declining, affirmative action from the NIH may be necessary.
我们的目的是确定美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）对心胸外科研究的资助状况。
（1）若要开发新的手术程序和设备，来自NIH的资助至关重要。（2）人们认为心胸外科教职人员提交的NIH申请成功率较低。（3）最近发现，外科领域NIH申请和奖励的人均数量以及申请成功率低于NIH的平均水平。
通过将NIH IMPAC II数据库中的记录与胸外科医师协会和美国胸外科协会的成员名册相匹配，获取全职学术性心胸外科医生的申请和奖励数据。人力数据来自胸外科医师协会/美国胸外科协会劳动力委员会1999年、2003年和2005年的报告。协会成员身份被用作研究者经验的替代指标。
在过去7年中，NIH申请数量急剧增加；然而，奖励数量保持不变。外科和心胸外科也观察到了这种模式。直到2003年，心胸外科的申请成功率实际上高于外科和整个NIH的成功率（在25%至40%之间）。然而，从那时起，心胸外科的申请成功率急剧下降，现在仅为14%。每100名心胸外科医生的NIH申请和奖励数量虽然与外科相似，但远低于整个NIH的水平。
心胸外科医生的人均NIH资助远低于整个NIH的水平。主要原因是心胸外科医生提交的人均申请数量较低。应鼓励初级心胸外科教职人员申请职业发展奖励。然而，由于将成本从临床教职人员转移到学术教职人员的能力正在下降，NIH可能需要采取平权行动。
