Lost in Translation: NIH Funding for Family Medicine Research Remains Limited

Departments of Family Medicine (DFMs) in the United States consistently received around 0.2% of total research funding dollars and 0.3% of all awards awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) across the years 2002 to 2014. We used the NIH Reporter tool to quantify the amount of funding and the number of grants received by DFMs from the NIH from 2002 to 2014, using criteria similar to those applied by previous researchers. NIH funding to DFMs as remained fairly consistent across the time period, at roughly 0.2% of total NIH funding and 0.3% of total grants awarded. Changing these proportions will likely require considerable effort to build research capacity within DFMs and their frontline practice research networks, and to shift policymaker and funder perceptions of the value of the FM research enterprise.

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