Med School: #2 in NIH Funding
I am very pleased to announce that our School of Medicine has held its #2 position among all the American medical schools that received research, contract and training funds from the National Institutes of Health in Fiscal Year 1999. This year's total of $238,392,244 represents another substantial step forward for PennMed, which last year received $201 million. Again this year, only Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine received more in total funding from NIH, with $255.3 million, or $16.9 million ahead of PennMed as compared to a $23.6 million lead last year. Much of this difference, however, relates to the substantial number of contracts held by Hopkins.
Penn was first in training grants with $12,536,992. In addition, in peer-reviewed competitive research grants, we are only $6,496,533 behind Johns Hopkins, or only 2.9%. Given that our NIH awards are up 25% through the first 5 months this year, I believe we have an excellent chance of moving into the #1 position in research funding at the end of the current fiscal year.
We are extremely proud of the fact that we now have five departments at the #1 position and a total of 14 departments in the top 5. Those that are #1 include Obstetrics and Gynecology, Physiology, and Radiology (including Radiation Oncology), which were ranked first last fiscal year as well. This year, Dermatology and Neurology also were ranked first. Three departments are now in the #2 position, including Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pharmacology. Medicine, Psychiatry, and Ophthalmology are #3; Biochemistry and Biophysics and Rehabilitation Medicine are #4; and Orthopaedic Surgery is #5. While the money is obviously important for our faculty to do the research, this funding measure becomes even more important as a measure of the excellence of our faculty since essentially all of these funds are generated through the highly competitive peer review process which exists in this country. In these times when all academic health systems face many financial constraints, the support of the NIH is particularly important. My congratulations go out to all of those involved, from the faculty members to the bench staff. Great job!
The rest of the medical schools in the top ten for total NIH funding were, in rank order: Washington University; the University of California at San Francisco; Yale; the University of Washington; Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons; Stanford; the University of Michigan; and the University of Pittsburgh.
--William N. Kelly, Dean, School of Medicine
Almanac, Vol. 46, No. 21, February 15, 2000