PHYS THER
Vol. 86, No. 4, April 2006, p. 592
Initiatives in Rehabilitation Research |
Initiatives in Rehabilitation Research
Federal funding of rehabilitation research depends on how much that research is valued, both within the physical therapy profession and among the external groups and individuals who have a stake in the research outcomes. To help advance rehabilitation research, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) forges partnerships, coalitions, and collaborations for advocacy, aware-ness, and legislative action; promotes the appointment of physical therapists to federal panels; and fosters infrastructure and research capacity building. To further cement the physical therapy profession’s relationship with policymakers, APTA also is identifying health policy questions.
"Americans place a high value on medi-cal research and recognize it as one of our nation’s most crucial priorities," said John Edward Porter, Research!America’s board chair. "They understand that strong investment in research and science is crit-ical not only for our global scientific lead-ership but for the health of our economy and the American people."1
In a new national poll released in Janu-ary by Research America,2 nearly 6 in 10 Americans (58%) said that greater funding for medical and health care research is "essential to the country’s future health and economic prosperity." More than half (51%) thought that a greater national commitment to medical research is a way to manage US health care costs, and 51% wanted President Bush to include increased funding for health-related research in his 2007 budget request.
APTA and its rehabili-tation research ini-tiative work with other rehabilita-tion, disability, and advocacy groups to promote increased federal funding for research. This effort focuses on several levels:
- First, to promote a global commit-ment to biomedical research and adequate funding for leading fed- eral programs, such as the National Insti-tutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Education;
- Second, to ensure that rehabilitation is represented as a significant focus of biomedical research;
- Third, to seek specific funding for pro-grams and initiatives.
To advocate for enhanced federal fund-ing, APTA has sought a greater level of involvement in the annual appropria-tions process.
Federal funding for rehabilitation research is highly dependent on the annual budget and appropriations pro-cess of Congress. The process begins with the president’s proposed bud-get and concludes with passage of the appropriations bills later in the year. Throughout this annual process, federal agencies must demonstrate the value of their authorized objectives and justify the expense to taxpayers.
In the late 1990s, Congress showed a dedication to biomedical research by an initiative to "double" NIH funding in 5 years. Congress achieved this goal; however, NIH funding currently is 1% of total US health care expenditures. Fur-thermore, the success of the "doubling" efforts is slowly being eroded by stagnant funding in the past 2 appropriations bills and the projection for a third year of a "flatline" in the budget of NIH, the nation’s leader in biomedical research. Stable funding is a problem because it does not reflect inflation; therefore, each year of level funding is actually a decrease in funding. The doubling effort of the 1990s has been basically cancelled out by projections of level funding for the near future, including a proposed "flatline" budget for NIH for fiscal year (FY) 2007. APTA is joining leaders in the research advocacy field to promote a 5% increase to keep research funding at a stable level. This effort does not provide additional resources to the research enterprise; it merely keeps current research efforts on pace with inflation.
After funding levels are advocated, APTA seeks to target those funds for rehabili-tation. As mentioned previously in this
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Copyright © 2006 by the American Physical Therapy Association.
