Li Alan K, Kendal Joseph K, Hamad Christopher D, Peterson Nicholas V, Asachi Parsa, Taylor Jeremiah M, Le Michael M, Lloyd Trevor S, Wessel Lauren E, Bernthal Nicholas M
David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2025 Jan 1;107(1):96-103. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.24.00643. Epub 2024 Oct 1.
Musculoskeletal diseases are a major contributor to global human disability, but research in this area of medicine contends with chronic underfunding in the United States, receiving <2% of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget. The Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) serves as a vital nongovernmental organization, providing essential support for orthopaedic research. This study investigated the translation of various OREF grants into successful extramural federal funding discerning the clinician demographics and OREF award characteristics associated with increased chances of securing federal grants.
We included OREF data from 1994 to 2020, and federal funding from the NIH, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) was queried using publicly available databases: the NIH RePORTER, the DoD Defense Technical Information Center, the NSF search engine, and the AHRQ search engine. Clinician demographics and training were collected from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons roster and institution departmental websites. The successful translation of OREF grants into federal awards was assessed based on clinician gender, training, and specialty, as well as OREF grant mechanisms and characteristics; multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the likelihood of federal translation based on these predictor variables.
Three hundred and forty-eight OREF grants were awarded to 319 different clinicians, 23.5% of whom successfully translated their award into a federal grant. Notably, recipients of the OREF Career Development Grant (CDG) demonstrated a 48.4% translation rate to federal funding. The federal return on investment for all of the OREF grants averaged 503%, translating approximately $34 million in OREF awards into >$200 million in federal funding. Logistic regression revealed that recipients who received CDG funding, as well as orthopaedic oncologists, were more than 3 times as likely to secure federal funding than those who received grants with other mechanisms and those in other subspecialties.
OREF fills a vital role in supporting budding orthopaedic research careers, ensuring the field's competitiveness for federal awards on a national scale. The success rates, particularly for CDG recipients, highlight OREF's effectiveness in identifying promising surgeon-scientists.
肌肉骨骼疾病是导致全球人类残疾的主要因素，但美国该医学领域的研究一直面临资金长期不足的问题，获得的资金不到美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）预算的2%。骨科研究与教育基金会（OREF）是一个重要的非政府组织，为骨科研究提供了至关重要的支持。本研究调查了OREF各项资助转化为成功的校外联邦资助的情况，以识别与获得联邦资助机会增加相关的临床医生人口统计学特征和OREF资助特点。
我们纳入了1994年至2020年的OREF数据，并使用公开可用数据库查询了NIH、美国国防部（DoD）、美国国家科学基金会（NSF）和医疗保健研究与质量局（AHRQ）的联邦资助情况：NIH RePORTER、DoD国防技术信息中心、NSF搜索引擎和AHRQ搜索引擎。临床医生的人口统计学特征和培训信息从美国骨科医师学会名册和机构部门网站收集。根据临床医生的性别、培训、专业，以及OREF资助机制和特点，评估OREF资助成功转化为联邦资助的情况；使用多变量逻辑回归根据这些预测变量确定获得联邦资助转化的可能性。
348项OREF资助授予了319名不同的临床医生，其中23.5%的人成功将其资助转化为联邦资助。值得注意的是，OREF职业发展资助（CDG）的获得者向联邦资助的转化率为48.4%。所有OREF资助的联邦投资回报率平均为503%，将约3400万美元的OREF资助转化为超过2亿美元的联邦资助。逻辑回归显示，获得CDG资助的获得者以及骨科肿瘤学家获得联邦资助的可能性是获得其他机制资助的获得者和其他亚专业人员的3倍多。
OREF在支持新兴的骨科研究事业方面发挥着至关重要的作用，确保了该领域在全国范围内获得联邦资助的竞争力。成功率，特别是CDG获得者的成功率，凸显了OREF在识别有前途的外科科学家方面的有效性。
