Evaluating factors impacting National Institutes of Health funding in pain medicine.

Background: While many medical specialties have established links between bibliometric indices, academic rank, leadership roles, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, there exists a gap within the field of pain medicine. The purpose of our study is to examine the impact of research productivity (h-index, m-index, publications, citations), professional degrees (PhD, MPH, MBA), leadership positions (program director, division chief, chairman), and faculty demographics (gender, nationality of training) on attaining NIH grant funding among pain medicine faculty.

Methods: A complete list of 98 civilian pain medicine programs was included in the study. Between September 1, 2022, and December 30, 2022, departmental websites were accessed to accrue a list of pain medicine faculty listings. Publicly available information was used to extract research productivities, professional degrees, leadership positions, faculty demographics, and NIH grant funding. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis, with NIH funding status as the primary outcome.

Results: A total of 696 pain physicians within the academic community were identified. Markers of research productivity such as a higher h- or m-index, larger number of publications and citations, PhD status, and being senior faculty (full professor, division chief, or chairman) were independently associated with NIH funding. There was no statistical difference (p>0.05) among males and females in the number of R grants received.

Conclusions: We have identified many factors associated with NIH funding status and failed to find significant gender disparities in NIH funding. These findings allow for chronic pain programs to have another set of tools to attract, promote, and retain faculty.