The Effect of Federal Biomedical Research Programs on Academic Medical Centers

Examines, through the use of multivariate analysis, the simultaneous effects of multiple factors--including federal research programs--that affect academic medical centers. Using individual departments as a unit of analysis, research-training funds and research support grants most significantly affected enrollment and Ph.D. production. Specialty choices of medical school graduates are affected very little. Dependence on federal biomedical research funds for faculty salaries varies across institutions, and salary levels for all faculty except department chairman tend to be lower in research intensive departments when other factors are controlled for. Changes in National Institutes of Health funding seem to have only mild effects on funding from other sources. The central administration of a medical center appears to exercise only limited control over total department budgets, which indicates that individual departments may be quite vulnerable to research funding cutbacks. Federal programs do affect the research activity of individual scientists and the kinds of research they propose in their applications.