A new paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, "An Urgent Call to Action in Support of Injury Control Research Centers" reports that funding disparities for research are enormous across health problems, with funding for injury, the third leading cause of death in the United States, far out of proportion to the magnitude of the problem. For example, the federally-funded Injury Control Research Center (ICRC) program, created in 1987 with a $10 million Congressional appropriation to support five Centers, now supports 11 Centers who receive less than $1 million annually to support their work. Using funding to the National Cancer Institute as the standard and calibrating based on total deaths, the researchers determined the actual figure should exceed $1.4 billion. The report is co-authored by Center Director Andrea Gielen along with leaders from six other Injury Centers.
"Despite the meager support provided, Injury Centers have made substantial progress and discoveries over the past two decades, demonstrating their continuing potential to advance the science and practice of injury control," said Dr. Gielen. "As evidenced in this paper, what’s urgently needed is increased investment to accelerate these discoveries and ensure our results impact communities."
The article includes select examples of research contributions by the ICRC program and presents four critical "Call to Actions" for Congress and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These include: Cultivate investigator interest in injury control and further development of cutting-edge research through increased funding; Support training in the science of injury control; Launch a comprehensive national campaign to foster public support for eradication of injury as a health problem; and Support a comprehensive, multi-agency review to determine how best to fund basic, applied, and translational injury research.
The paper can be accessed at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VHT-50937JG-8&_user=75682&_coverDate=07%2F31%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000006078&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=75682&md5=f9fbda7c99a29cf2dbbd3ad1fa51e2ed