Nation's research funding squeeze imperils patient care, say top medical school deans

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/uouh-nrf052215.php

Public Release: 27-May-2015
University of Utah Health Sciences

Constraints in federal funding, compounded by declining clinical revenue, jeopardize more than the nation's research enterprise.

These twin pressures have created a "hostile working environment" that erodes time to conduct research, "discourages innovative high-risk science" and threatens to drive established and early-career scientists out of the field. And this, in turn, undermines patient care, proclaimed deans of leading academic medical centers from across the U.S. The group commentary was published in Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday.

"For university medical centers to continue to make the enormous strides in advancing research and helping people prevent and combat disease, the nation needs to invest in research," said co-author, Vivian S. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, dean of the University of Utah's School of Medicine and senior vice president of health sciences. "As it stands already, university medical centers subsidize federally funded research. Moreover, universities have increasing administrative and bureaucratic burdens, and our clinical reimbursements, which have been used to help support research and teaching, are diminishing."

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On average, universities contribute 53 cents for every dollar they receive in research support, and their share of the costs has grown faster than any other funding source (state governments, technology transfer, and philanthropy). Much of that money comes from clinical margins, which are shrinking under efforts to control health spending.

Proliferating federal regulations have added to the cost of research. Seventy member institutions of the Association of American Academic Medical Colleges spent $22.6 million just to comply with rules governing potential financial conflicts of interest.
[How much do financial conflicts of interest cost us? Eg., it could result in hiding the bad side effects of medicines, in order to protect the profits of the institution, or drug companies.]

"The frightening truth is that America will soon forfeit its preeminence in biomedical science. As a country, we have already fallen to tenth in the world in our investment in research and development, and we are slipping further behind.

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