Reductions in federal support and clinical revenue not only jeopardize biomedical research at academic medical centers, but may ultimately impact clinical medicine according to an opinion piece in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Biomedical research is crucial to the US national agenda and academic medical centers--the provenance for much of this research - are at particular risk, according to the authors. Persistent constraints on federal funding threaten to undermine this, and decreasing clinical revenue due to increasingly constrained reimbursement levels compound the threat. Academic medical centers remain both the tertiary care site and the option of last resort for the most complex and challenging patients, including a disproportionately large share of individuals without adequate health insurance or sufficient means to pay for this care.
The article was written by academic medical center leaders across the country, including BUSM Dean and Medical Campus Provost Karen Antman, MD.
U.S. academic medical centers are committed to providing high-quality patient care while using their limited resources effectively and efficiently. "We cannot achieve these goals nor meet the health-care challenges of an aging and increasingly diverse population while simultaneously managing limitations on federal funding for biomedical research and decreasing clinical revenue compound this threat. Scientists, administrators and policy makers must collaborate effectively to address both of these threats," Antman said.
Congress is developing the "21st Century Cures Act" to address these concerns.
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