A study to be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that medical schools in areas with a high level of managed health care have experienced slower growth in the dollar amount of research awards they received from the National Institutes of Health. But contrary to these findings, UCSF has been doing just fine, says Karl Hittelman, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Association of American Medical Colleges, found that many medical schools in areas with the greatest managed care penetration experienced a loss of share of NIH awards in 1995 totalling $98 million, reflecting a 19.5 to 17.3 percent decline in their total share of NIH awards. Although the UCSF School of Medicine did receive $500,000 less in 1995 than it did in 1994, it nonetheless ranked second in overall funding in comparison to the 125 medical schools receiving NIH grants that year.

A look at UCSF’s four health science schools’ funding for that year shows a total of $199.2 million received in research grants, training grants, contracts and fellowships — a $3 million improvement over 1994. The UCSF Schools of Dentistry and Pharmacy received more funding than their counterparts, the School of Nursing placed third in overall funding, and the School of Medicine received the second largest amount in 1995.

Despite the small dip between 1994 and 1995, UCSF’s School of Medicine, which remains the second largest recipient of NIH funding among America’s medical schools, received an additional $9 million in 1996.

“Over the past decade, UCSF has been extremely successful in earning federal support for biomedical research,” says Hittelman. Indeed, the study’s co-authors have cautioned that although an association exists between managed care and slower growth in NIH research awards, the relationship is not necessarily causal.

1st appeared 7/15/97