Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, New Jersey.
J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2023 Aug 2;105(15):1205-1213. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.23.00006. Epub 2023 Apr 20.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of orthopaedic surgery departments has historically lagged behind that of other surgical disciplines. In this study, we present an updated analysis of NIH grants awarded to orthopaedic surgery departments at U.S. medical schools and an evaluation of the characteristics of NIH-funded principal investigators (PIs).
The NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) database was queried for grants awarded to orthopaedic surgery departments in the 2015 to 2021 fiscal years. Funding totals were calculated for 4 categories: award mechanism, awarding institute, recipient institute, and PI. Trends in funding from 2015 to 2021 were determined and compared with the annual NIH budget. Funding awarded to orthopaedic surgery departments was compared with awards received by other surgical specialties in 2021. The characteristics of NIH-funded PIs and co-PIs were evaluated. Funding awarded to orthopaedic surgery departments in 2021 was compared with funding in 2014 as reported in a previous study.
In 2021, 287 grants were awarded to 187 PIs at 47 orthopaedic surgery departments for a total of $104,710,841, representing 0.4% of the overall NIH budget. The top 5 departments earned $41,750,321 (39.9%) of the total NIH funding for orthopaedic surgery. From 2015 to 2021, total funding increased by 79.7% (p < 0.001), but the rate of increase was not significantly different from that of the overall annual NIH budget (p = 0.469). In 2021, grants were most commonly awarded via the R01 mechanism (70.0% of total funding), with a median annual award of $397,144 (interquartile range [IQR], $335,017 to $491,248). The majority of grants (70.0%) supported basic science research, followed by translational (12.2%), clinical (9.4%), and educational (8.4%) research. NIH funding did not vary by the gender of the PI (p = 0.505), and the proportion of female PIs was significantly greater in 2021 than in 2014 (33.9% versus 20.5%, p = 0.009). Compared with other surgical departments, orthopaedic surgery departments ranked second-lowest in terms of the total NIH funding received in 2021.
NIH funding to orthopaedic surgery departments continues to be limited and lags behind that of other surgical subspecialties, which may create challenges in addressing the rising burden of musculoskeletal disease in the U.S. These findings highlight the importance of efforts to identify barriers to grant procurement in orthopaedic surgery.
美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）对矫形外科部门的资助历来落后于其他外科学科。在这项研究中，我们介绍了对美国医学院矫形外科部门获得的 NIH 资助的最新分析，并评估了 NIH 资助的主要研究者（PI）的特征。
在 2015 年至 2021 财年，通过 NIH 研究组合在线报告工具支出和结果（RePORTER）数据库查询授予矫形外科部门的资助。为 4 个类别计算了资助总额：奖励机制、奖励机构、接受机构和 PI。确定了 2015 年至 2021 年的资金趋势，并将其与 NIH 年度预算进行了比较。将 2021 年授予矫形外科部门的资助与其他外科专业的奖项进行了比较。评估了 NIH 资助的 PI 和共同 PI 的特征。将 2021 年的资助与之前研究报告的 2014 年的资助进行了比较。
2021 年，287 项资助授予 47 个矫形外科部门的 187 名 PI，总计 10471.0841 万美元，占 NIH 总预算的 0.4%。前 5 个部门获得了 4175.0321 万美元（占矫形外科 NIH 资助总额的 39.9%）。从 2015 年到 2021 年，总资金增加了 79.7%（p<0.001），但增长率与 NIH 年度预算的增长率没有显著差异（p=0.469）。2021 年，最常见的资助是通过 R01 机制（占总资助的 70.0%），每年的平均奖励为 397144 美元（四分位间距 [IQR]，335017 至 491248 美元）。大多数资助（70.0%）用于基础科学研究，其次是转化（12.2%）、临床（9.4%）和教育（8.4%）研究。NIH 资金的分配与 PI 的性别无关（p=0.505），2021 年女性 PI 的比例明显高于 2014 年（33.9%比 20.5%，p=0.009）。与其他外科部门相比，矫形外科部门在 2021 年获得的 NIH 总资助排名倒数第二。
美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）对矫形外科部门的资助仍然有限，落后于其他外科专业，这可能给美国日益增长的肌肉骨骼疾病负担带来挑战。这些发现强调了努力确定矫形外科拨款获取障碍的重要性。
