The Impact of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery on National Institutes of Health Grant Funding for Cardiothoracic Surgeons

ABSTRACT Objectives The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), through its annual meeting, pilot grant funding, Scientific Affairs and Government Relations (SAGR) Committee activity, and academic development programs (Grant Writing Workshop, Clinical Trials Course, Innovation Summit), has aimed to develop the research careers of cardiothoracic surgeons. We hypothesized that AATS activities have helped to increase National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants awarded to cardiothoracic surgeons. Methods A database of 1,869 academic cardiothoracic surgeons in the United States was created as of December 2020. NIH grant records from 1985-2020 were obtained for each surgeon using NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results. Analyses were normalized to the number of active surgeons per year, based on the year of each surgeon’s earliest research publication on Scopus. Results 346 cardiothoracic surgeons have received 696 NIH grants totaling over $1.5 billion in funding. The prevalence of research grants (7.4 vs 5.6 grants per 100 active surgeons, p Conclusions Through dedicated efforts and programs, the AATS has provided effective support to help increase NIH grant funding awarded to CT surgeons.