Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Va.
Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md.
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2022 Mar;163(3):872-879.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2021.01.088. Epub 2021 Feb 3.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for academic (noncardiac) thoracic surgeons at the top-140 NIH-funded institutes in the United States was assessed. We hypothesized that thoracic surgeons have difficulty in obtaining NIH funding in a difficult funding climate.
The top-140 NIH-funded institutes' faculty pages were searched for noncardiac thoracic surgeons. Surgeon data, including gender, academic rank, and postfellowship training were recorded. These surgeons were then queried in NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results for their funding history. Analysis of the resulting grants (1980-2019) included grant type, funding amount, project start/end dates, publications, and a citation-based Grant Impact Metric to evaluate productivity.
A total of 395 general thoracic surgeons were evaluated with 63 (16%) receiving NIH funding. These 63 surgeons received 136 grants totaling $228 million, resulting in 1772 publications, and generating more than 50,000 citations. Thoracic surgeons have obtained NIH funding at an increasing rate (1980-2019); however, they have a low percentage of R01 renewal (17.3%). NIH-funded thoracic surgeons were more likely to have a higher professorship level. Thoracic surgeons perform similarly to other physician-scientists in converting K-Awards into R01 funding.
Contrary to our hypothesis, thoracic surgeons have received more NIH funding over time. Thoracic surgeons are able to fill the roles of modern surgeon-scientists by obtaining NIH funding during an era of increasing clinical demands. The NIH should continue to support this mission.
评估美国前 140 名 NIH 资助机构中，学术型（非心脏）胸外科医生获得 NIH 资助的情况。我们假设，在资金紧张的情况下，胸外科医生很难获得 NIH 资助。
搜索前 140 名 NIH 资助机构的教员网页，寻找非心脏胸外科医生。记录外科医生的数据，包括性别、学术职称和博士后培训。然后在 NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results 中查询这些外科医生的资助历史。对获得的资助（1980-2019 年）进行分析，包括资助类型、资助金额、项目起止日期、出版物和基于引文的资助影响指标，以评估生产力。
共评估了 395 名普通胸外科医生，其中 63 名（16%）获得 NIH 资助。这 63 名外科医生共获得 136 项资助，总额 2.28 亿美元，发表了 1772 篇论文，产生了超过 5 万次引用。胸外科医生获得 NIH 资助的比例呈上升趋势（1980-2019 年）；然而，他们的 R01 续期率（17.3%）较低。获得 NIH 资助的胸外科医生更有可能拥有更高的教授职位。胸外科医生在将 K 奖转化为 R01 资金方面与其他医师科学家表现相似。
与我们的假设相反，胸外科医生在过去的时间里获得了更多的 NIH 资助。胸外科医生通过在临床需求不断增加的时代获得 NIH 资助，能够胜任现代外科医生-科学家的角色。NIH 应继续支持这一使命。
