Abstract
Philanthropic donations have funded scientific investigations of cardiovascular disease for much of human history, and the patrons who enabled them are indirectly responsible for major breakthroughs in the field. Today, however, the lion’s share of funding for cardiovascular research in Western countries comes from the government, professional agencies, and industry. Rapid budget cuts at these traditional sources of financial support are having a devastating impact on the cardiovascular research infrastructure by slashing funding for investigators. A particularly unfortunate consequence is the discouraging effect this is having on early career investigators, who are the life-blood of future breakthroughs in the field, leading to the potential loss of an entire generation of researchers. Here, we summarize the challenges faced by emerging cardiovascular investigators, make a case for the unmet need for appropriately targeted philanthropic support for cardiovascular research, and provide a roadmap for solving the funding shortfall for these investigators.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chapman A (1995) William Harvey and the circulation of the blood. J Lab Clin Med 126:423–427
Nabel EG, Braunwald E (2012) A tale of coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. New Engl J Med 366:54–63
Laslett LJ, Alagona P Jr, Clark BA 3rd et al (2012) The worldwide environment of cardiovascular disease: prevalence, diagnosis, therapy, and policy issues: a report from the American College of Cardiology. J Am Coll Cardiol 60:S1–S49
The state of US health, 1990–2010: Burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factorsthe state of us health, 1990–2010 The State of US Health, 1990–2010 JAMA 2013
Pammolli F, Magazzini L, Riccaboni M (2011) The productivity crisis in pharmaceutical R&D. Nat Rev Drug Discov 10:428–438
Heidenreich PA, Trogdon JG, Khavjou OA et al (2011) Forecasting the future of cardiovascular disease in the United States: a policy statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation 123:933–944
Dorsey ER, de Roulet J, Thompson JP et al (2010) Funding of US biomedical research, 2003–2008. JAMA 303:137–143
Campbell EG (2009) The future of research funding in academic medicine. New Engl J Med 360:1482–1483
Zerhouni EA (2006) Research funding. NIH in the post-doubling era: realities and strategies. Science 314:1088–1090
Ohlstein EH (2010) The grand challenges in cardiovascular drug discovery and development. Front Pharmacol 1:125
Wood S (2011) Drugs, money, and glory: Is cancer beating cardiovascular disease? www.theheart.org. Accessed 20 Sept 2013
National Heart L, and Blood Institute. NHLBI Factbook, Fiscal Year 2010. 2010
National Cancer Institute. The NCI Annual Fact Book. 2010
Mai TV, Agan DL, Clopton P, Collins G, DeMaria AN (2013) The magnitude and nature of unfunded published cardiovascular research. J Am Coll Cardiol 61:275–281
Wood S. Part 2: Money—is cancer beating cardiovascular disease? theheart.org. http://www.theheart.org/article/1263383.do. Accessed 20 Sept 2013
Fuster V, van der Zee S, Elmariah S, Bonow RO (2009) Academic careers in cardiovascular medicine. Circulation 119:754–760
Lyubarova R, Itagaki BK, Itagaki MW (2009) The impact of National Institutes of Health funding on U.S. cardiovascular disease research. PLoS ONE 4:e6425
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. Emily O’Brien of DCRI, Blue Dean of Duke University, and Shelly Wood of heartwire for their invaluable comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahmad, T., Becker, R.C. The unmet need for philanthropic funding of early career cardiovascular investigators. J Thromb Thrombolysis 37, 527–531 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-013-1016-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-013-1016-7