The Effect of Federal Biomedical Research Programs on Academic Medical Centers. Prepared for the President's Biomedical Research Panel.

RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California 90406 ($7.00)

N

130

Biological Sciences; Biomedicine; Budgets; Departments; Doctoral Programs; Federal Aid; Government Role; Government School Relationship; Grants; Higher Education; Hospitals; Medical Research; Medical Schools; Research Projects; Researchers

The effects of evolving federal research policies and programs on nongovernmental academic medical centers are examined. Medical schools, teaching hospitals, and research institutes are included. The major problem of analysis in this report is to sort out the effects of federally-supported biomedical research from other influences on academic medical centers. The analysis addresses the question of the status of the academic medical community on a number of levels. It examines how centers appear to have adjusted their educational programs, their organizational structures, their scientific activity, and their budgets as a result of their involvement in federal biomedical research. The measurable effects of federal research on the educational programs of centers appear to be limited largely to those components most involved in research. In general, the academic medical community is responsive to the influence of federal biomedical research programs. The analysis reported here confirms the interdependence between the federal agencies that sponsor research and the academic institutions performing it. Important characteristics of academic medical centers--Ph.D. programs, faculty size, budgets, and scientific activity--are directly related to the federal funding received by individual departments; and overall financial stability is often substantially affected by the stability of federal research funding. (Author/LBH)

1977

ED132962