NIH cuts could stall medical progress for lifesaving treatments, experts say
Doctors and researchers across academic institutions fear that the National Institutes of Health’s decision to cut indirect research funding could stall medical progress and negatively affect patient care.
Doctors and researchers across academic institutions fear that the National Institutes of Health’s decision to cut indirect research funding could stall medical progress and negatively affect patient care.
Indirect funding covers things like equipment, buildings, maintenance, utilities and support staff.
The funds aren’t used to directly support patient care but are crucial for basic operations at research institutions, said Dr. Theodore Iwashyna, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, paying for computers, whiteboards, microscopes, electricity, and janitors and staff who keep labs clean and organized.
The money supports “the research infrastructure,” said Iwashyna, who relies on NIH funding for research on chronic illnesses, including pneumonia, among the leading causes of hospitalizations in the U.S.
Iwashyna’s father had pancreatic cancer, and the care plan developed for him existed only because of research funded through organizations like the NIH.
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