Stanford Radiology Shows the Highest NIH-Funding Growth of U.S. Radiology Departments

Posted 10:17 AM, May 29, 2007, by jaruiz

By Susan Kopiwoda, MS, MPH, and Julie Ruiz, PhD

Despite a flattening NIH budget, Stanford Radiology has shown the greatest growth of any major U.S. radiology program during 2002 to 2006. According to Stanley Baum's NIH-ranking data, funding to our Department has more than doubled, showing a 203% percent increase in growth between the years 2002 and 2006. Unlike the NIH-funding rankings from the Office of Extramural Research, Baum's rankings exclude radiation oncology and include Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Beth Israel [See chart A].

Of the top 15 radiology departments from 2006, Stanford and one other U.S. radiology department, Beth Israel in Boston, have shown a funding increase of greater than 100% from 2002 to 2006. Also, only Stanford and Hopkins have shown a positive percent change in NIH funding for all four fiscal years: 02-03, 03-04, 04-05, 05-06.

We have continued to achieve remarkable funding results despite a challenging funding environment. In part, our Department has benefited from the five-year doubling of the NIH budget between 1998 and 2003, which grew from $13.7 billion to nearly $27.1 billion. Since 2003, the NIH budget growth has flattened, totaling $29.2 billion in 2007. Consequently, the percentage of NIH-funded research proposals is expected to decrease to 21% in 2007, down from 32% in 2001 [see "NIH Budget: Boom or Bust" http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5823/356]. Our Department has experienced the impact of the flattening NIH budget, and some of our requested budgets have been reduced by as much as 30%. Yet 82% of our research is still supported by NIH funding.

Our departmental success is directly due to our outstanding faculty, resources, and leadership, which have enabled us to establish three NIH-funded Centers of Excellence: the National Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Technology (CAMRT); the In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center at Stanford (ICMIC); and the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR).

Our research endeavors have directly translated into major technological and clinical achievements that should allow our NIH funding to continue to increase in the future. Our three largest center grants (CAMRT, ICMIC, and CCNE-TR) are funded until either 2010 or 2011. Each will provide a strong foundation as we launch one or two additional major imaging initiatives, which will link molecular imaging with nanotechnology and genomics to drive research in the early detection of cancer. In the NIH-funding rankings from the Office of Extramural Research, Stanford Radiology now ranks as the third highest NIH-funded radiology department among medical schools in the United States. We are positioning ourselves to achieve even greater NIH success in the future.