The NIH Stimulus Package

NEJM -- The NIH Stimulus -- The Recovery Act and Biomedical Research

The US health care system, despite its many issues, is the undisputed leader in health care research and innovation: more than two-thirds of all Nobel laureates in medicine over the past decade worked in the United States, and more than 80 percent of venture capital in the global health care sector flowed to the United States in 2007 (McK quarterly, Dec 2008).

The NIH is, in my opinion, is the primary driver of innovation in the health care system. The charts in the article are powerful - essentially a flat curve in the budget from 2003 to 2009, when you adjust for inflation.

I was in DC for the past two days, and had an interesting conversation with a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar, who said she's seen research where the average age of R01 awardees is rising, suggesting that people aren't getting their K awards funded as quickly as they used to (the entry level grants) and the old-timers keep accruing grants and aren't giving up to allow the younger folks to enter the research "market".

I know this bill has kept a few of my friends interested in pursuing research careers - they feel that the government is finally interested again in promoting meaningful biomedical scientific research. Hopefully we can sustain NIH's growth, and continue to keep bright, young talent within academia.