OBJECTIVES: Obtaining National Institutes of Health funding for heart transplant research is becoming increasingly difficult, especially for surgeons. We sought to determine the impact of National Institutes of Health-funded cardiac transplantation research over the past 30 years. METHODS: National Institutes of Health Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results was queried for R01s using 10 heart transplant-related terms. Principal Investigator, total grant funding amount, number of publications, and citations of manuscripts were collected. A citation-based Grant Impact Metric was assigned to each grant: sum of citations for each manuscript normalized by the funding of the respective grant (per $100K). The department and background degree(s) (MD, PhD, MD/PhD) for each funded Principal Investigator were identified from institutional faculty profiles. RESULTS: A total of 321 cardiac transplantation R01s totaling $723 million and resulting in 6513 publications were analyzed. Surgery departments received more grants and more funding dollars to study cardiac transplantation than any other department (n = 115, $249 million; Medicine: n = 93, $208 million; Pathology: 26, $55 million). Surgeons performed equally well compared with all other Principal Investigators with respect to Grant Impact Metric (15.1 vs 20.6; P = .19) and publications per $1 million (7.5 vs 6.8; P = .75). Finally, all physician-scientists (MDs) have a significantly higher Grant Impact Metric compared with nonclinician researchers (non-MDs) (22.3 vs 16.3; P = .028). CONCLUSIONS: Surgeon-scientists are equally productive and impactful compared with nonsurgeons despite decreasing funding rates at the National Institutes of Health and greater pressure from administrators to increase clinical productivity.
OBJECTIVES: Obtaining National Institutes of Health funding for heart transplant research is becoming increasingly difficult, especially for surgeons. We sought to determine the impact of National Institutes of Health-funded cardiac transplantation research over the past 30 years. METHODS: National Institutes of Health Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results was queried for R01s using 10 heart transplant-related terms. Principal Investigator, total grant funding amount, number of publications, and citations of manuscripts were collected. A citation-based Grant Impact Metric was assigned to each grant: sum of citations for each manuscript normalized by the funding of the respective grant (per $100K). The department and background degree(s) (MD, PhD, MD/PhD) for each funded Principal Investigator were identified from institutional faculty profiles. RESULTS: A total of 321 cardiac transplantation R01s totaling $723 million and resulting in 6513 publications were analyzed. Surgery departments received more grants and more funding dollars to study cardiac transplantation than any other department (n = 115, $249 million; Medicine: n = 93, $208 million; Pathology: 26, $55 million). Surgeons performed equally well compared with all other Principal Investigators with respect to Grant Impact Metric (15.1 vs 20.6; P = .19) and publications per $1 million (7.5 vs 6.8; P = .75). Finally, all physician-scientists (MDs) have a significantly higher Grant Impact Metric compared with nonclinician researchers (non-MDs) (22.3 vs 16.3; P = .028). CONCLUSIONS: Surgeon-scientists are equally productive and impactful compared with nonsurgeons despite decreasing funding rates at the National Institutes of Health and greater pressure from administrators to increase clinical productivity.
Authors: Adishesh K Narahari; Ian O Cook; J Hunter Mehaffey; Anirudha S Chandrabhatla; Robert B Hawkins; Zachary Tyerman; Eric J Charles; Curtis G Tribble; Irving L Kron; Nicholas R Teman; Mark E Roeser; Gorav Ailawadi Journal: J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg Date: 2019-09-09 Impact factor: 5.209
Authors: David L S Morales; Muhammad S Khan; Joseph W Turek; Reshma Biniwale; Christo I Tchervenkov; Michele Rush; Jeffrey P Jacobs; James S Tweddell; Marshall L Jacobs Journal: Ann Thorac Surg Date: 2016-08-20 Impact factor: 4.330
Authors: Adishesh K Narahari; J Hunter Mehaffey; Robert B Hawkins; Pranav K Baderdinni; Anirudha S Chandrabhatla; Curtis G Tribble; Irving L Kron; Mark E Roeser; Dustin M Walters; Gorav Ailawadi Journal: Ann Thorac Surg Date: 2018-03-14 Impact factor: 4.330
Authors: Adishesh K Narahari; J Hunter Mehaffey; Robert B Hawkins; Eric J Charles; Pranav K Baderdinni; Anirudha S Chandrabhatla; Joseph W Kocan; R Scott Jones; Gilbert R Upchurch; Irving L Kron; John A Kern; Gorav Ailawadi Journal: J Am Coll Surg Date: 2018-02-23 Impact factor: 6.113
Authors: Adishesh K Narahari; J Hunter Mehaffey; Anirudha S Chandrabhatla; Robert B Hawkins; Eric J Charles; Mark E Roeser; Christine Lau; Gorav Ailawadi Journal: J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg Date: 2021-02-03 Impact factor: 5.209