Ranking NIH Funding of Surgical Departments Based Upon a Modified Index

Area of Science:

• Medical Research
• Surgical Departments
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding

Background:

• The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) ranks surgical departments by NIH funding.
• Current rankings may include institutional grants not reflecting departmental research.
• A modified index was created to exclude these institutional grants.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of excluding institutional grants on surgical department NIH funding rankings.
• To determine if a modified BRIMR index provides a more accurate measure of research productivity.

Main Methods:

• Filtered BRIMR data for surgical departments in medical schools.
• Excluded all NIH grants awarded to Cancer Centers or Centers for Research.
• Recalculated rankings based on remaining individual and departmental grants.

Main Results:

• Excluding $42,761,752 in institutional grants caused minor shifts in 33 departments.
• Only four departments moved one quartile; none moved two or more quartiles.
• Institutional grants constituted 10% of total NIH funding for surgical departments.

Conclusions:

• Exclusion of Cancer Center and research center grants had no significant effect on quartile rankings.
• The standard BRIMR ranking is a reliable measure of surgical department research productivity.
• No modification to the BRIMR index is necessary.