Physicians Get Fewer NIH Research Grants

U.S. researchers with only M.D. degrees are less likely to receive government research funds than researchers with Ph.D. degrees or both.

That’s the conclusion of a group of physicians at the Association of American medical Colleges in Washington.

They looked at first-time and second-time applications for research funds from the National Institutes of Health between 1964 and 2004. They found that 28 percent of those with M.D. degrees, 31 percent of applicants with Ph.D.s, and 34 percent of researchers with both degrees were successful.

For second-time grants, those numbers were 70, 73, and 78 percent, respectively.

Physician-scientists bring unique skills, experience, motivation, and perspective to biomedical research, the authors wrote. They play an indispensable role, especially in designing and conducting the translational and clinical research by which scientific advancements are brought into medical practice. For medical schools and teaching hospitals, the challenge is to create a more attractive and supportive academic culture that not only attracts and trains, but also actively nurtures and sustains clinical and translational scientists.

A report on the research is published in the June 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.