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News

Economic Stimulus Package Will Provide Billions in Research Funding

In the United States, medicine in general and IR in particular are rapidly moving toward a performance-based system of reimbursement, in which purchasers want evidence that physicians provide value for the services they render. Demonstrating value will mean producing evidence that therapies provided by Interventional Radiologist are safer, more effective and delivered more efficiently than the other available alternatives.

President Obama’s recently approved American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, designed to stimulate the U.S. economy, has established a tremendous opportunity for medical research. In coming months, two agencies will greatly expand their budgets for research support, and IR investigators are strongly encouraged to pursue these grants quickly.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will open up an additional $10.4 billion in research funding, $8.2 billion of which will be earmarked to support approximately 500 specific scientific research priorities. Many of these topic areas have direct ties to IR, such as outcomes of image-guided interventions or topics that link outcomes to existing hospital databases. Although NIH will consider grants outside this priorities list, the categories will likely receive greater resonance from grant reviewers. Because the expanded budget is tied to the economic stimulus package, greater precedence will be given to research programs that would be able to spend the funding within FY09 (such as registries that can quickly compile retrospective data). The list of research priorities and other criteria for successful funding application can be found on the NIH grants Web site, http://grants.nih.gov.

Additional funding possibilities come from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The first deadline for AHRQ grant applications is May 25, 2009. Although the NIH grants budget is higher, AHRQ grants remain a sound option, since NIH grant applications may experience significant competition. AHRQ is a relatively new agency focused on quality improvement. Their plans have not yet been formalized, though they report that their budget will likely be doubled as a result of the Recovery Act. AHRQ is particularly interested in health information technology, particularly for the outpatient setting.

Interventional Radiologists can invest in the future of their specialty in four ways. First would be to personally invest one’s time and energy by drafting and submitting a research proposal to these two agencies. Second would be to partner with a researcher who will be responding to these grant announcements. Third would be to participate in future data gathering projects conducted through the Society of Interventional Radiology. Fourth would be to contribute to the SIR Foundation.

Please contact the SIR Foundation staff with any questions about these programs and how to apply for them.