Introduction

Neurosurgeons represent 0.5% of all physicians and currently face a high burden of disease. Physician-scientists are essential to advance the mission of National Academies of Science (NAS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) through discovery and bench to bedside translation. We investigated trends in NIH neurosurgeon-scientist funding over time as an indicator of physician-scientist workforce training.

Methods

We used NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORTER) to extract grants to neurosurgery departments and neurosurgeons from 1993 to 2017. Manual extraction of each individual grant awardee was conducted.

Results

After adjusting for U.S. inflation (base year: 1993), NIH funding to neurosurgery departments increased yearly (P < 0.00001). However, neurosurgeon-scientists received significantly less NIH funding compared to scientists (including basic scientists and research only neurosurgeons) (P = 0.09). The ratio of neurosurgeon-scientists to scientists receiving grants was significantly reduced (P = 0.002). Interestingly, the percentage of oncology-related neurosurgery grants significantly increased throughout the study period (P = 0.002). The average number of grants per neurosurgeon-scientists showed an upward trend (P < 0.001); however, the average number of grants for early-career neurosurgeon-scientists, showed a significant downward trend (P = 0.05).

Conclusion

Over the past 23 years, despite the overall increasing trends in the number of NIH grants awarded to neurosurgery departments overall, the proportion of neurosurgeon-scientists that were awarded NIH grants compared to scientists demonstrates a declining trend. This observed shift is disproportionate in the number of NIH grants awarded to senior level compared to early-career neurosurgeon-scientists, with more funding allocated towards neurosurgical-oncology-related grants.

中文翻译：

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1993-2017 年 NIH 对神经外科医生的资助趋势：生物医学劳动力对神经肿瘤学的影响

介绍

神经外科医生占所有医生的 0.5%，目前面临着沉重的疾病负担。通过发现和从实验室到床边的翻译，内科科学家对于推进美国国家科学院 (NAS) 和美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 的使命至关重要。我们调查了 NIH 神经外科医生 - 科学家资助随着时间推移的趋势，作为医师 - 科学家劳动力培训的指标。

方法

从 1993 年到 2017 年，我们使用 NIH 研究组合在线报告工具 (RePORTER) 提取对神经外科和神经外科医生的资助。对每个单独的资助获得者进行了手动提取。

结果

在对美国通货膨胀进行调整后（基准年：1993），NIH 对神经外科部门的资助逐年增加（P < 0.00001）。然而，与科学家（包括基础科学家和仅研究神经外科医生）相比，神经外科医生获得的 NIH 资助要少得多（P = 0.09）。神经外科医生与获得资助的科学家的比例显着降低（P = 0.002）。有趣的是，在整个研究期间，与肿瘤学相关的神经外科资助的百分比显着增加（P = 0.002）。每位神经外科医生的平均资助数量呈上升趋势（P < 0.001）；然而，早期职业神经外科医生的平均资助数量呈显着下降趋势（P = 0.05）。

结论

在过去的 23 年中，尽管 NIH 授予神经外科部门的资助数量总体呈上升趋势，但与科学家相比，获得 NIH 资助的神经外科医生科学家的比例呈下降趋势。与早期职业的神经外科医生科学家相比，这种观察到的转变在授予高级别的 NIH 拨款数量上是不成比例的，更多的资金分配给了与神经外科肿瘤学相关的拨款。