NIH Funding in Plastic Surgery: A Crisis?.

Background: Decreasing funding rates and increasing competition for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants have prompted diverse interventions in various fields of biomedicine. Currently, the state of NIH funding for plastic surgery research is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to describe the portfolio of NIH grants in academic plastic surgery. Methods: Plastic surgery faculty at integrated and independent programs were individually queried in the NIH RePORTER for grants awarded in 2014. Funding totals, mechanisms, and institutes were calculated. Abstracts were categorized by research type and field of interest. Characteristics of NIH-funded principal investigators were elucidated. Results: 861 academic plastic surgeons at 94 programs were queried and only 18 investigators (2.1%) were funded at 12 programs (12.8%). NIH-funded investigators were predominately male (72%), fellowship-trained (61%), and 49.3 +/- 7.8 years old. A total of 20 awards amounted to $6,916,886 with an average award of $345,844 +/- $222,909. Costs were primarily awarded through the R01 mechanism (77.2%). The top three NIH institutes awarded 72.9% of the entire portfolio. Funding supported clinical (41.1%), translational (36.9%), and basic science (22.0%) research. Craniofacial (20.5%), hand (18.7%), and breast (16.2%) had the greatest funding. Conclusions: Few programs and faculty drive the NIH portfolio of plastic surgery research. These data suggest a tenuous funding situation which may be susceptible to future spending cuts. Future research is needed to identify barriers to NIH funding procurement in academic plastic surgery. (C)2016American Society of Plastic Surgeons

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