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GAO-14-490R 1 (2014-04-23)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaahvg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: c;AO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 April 23, 2014 The Honorable Jack Kingston Chairman Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations House of Representatives National Institutes of Health: Fiscal Year 2013 Research Funding Allocations across Selected Diseases and Conditions Dear Mr. Chairman: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leader in sponsoring and conducting biomedical research related to life processes and many diseases and conditions, including those that are among the leading causes of death both in the United States and globally.1 In fiscal year 2013, NIH, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), had a budget of over $29 billion, most of which was used to fund research that supports scientists and research personnel working at universities, medical schools, and other research institutions and research performed by NIH scientists in NIH laboratories. Given NIH's role in biomedical research and the size of its budget, Congress and researchers have had long-standing interest in how NIH establishes research priorities and how those priorities guide the allocation of its resources, particularly in relation to various diseases and conditions. Accordingly, we issued a report in March 2014 that included information about NIH's fiscal year 2012 research funding related to diseases and health conditions that are the leading causes of death or the most prevalent chronic conditions. 2 In response to our March 2014 report, you asked us to provide similar information about NIH's fiscal year 2013 research funding related to these same diseases and conditions when it became available. To accomplish this, we reviewed NIH's Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization system (RCDC) funding data for fiscal year 20133 for those categories within RCDC that best matched with leading causes of death in the United States, chronic disease prevalence for adults in the United States, and leading causes of death globally.4 We interviewed and collected information from NIH officials responsible for RCDC to understand the data gathered and reported on, and determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the 1According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leading causes of death in the United States in 2011 include diseases of the heart, malignant neoplasms, chronic lower respiratory diseases, cerebrovascular disease, and accidents. The most prevalent chronic diseases and conditions include obesity, chronic joint symptoms, hypertension, untreated dental caries, and arthritis. 2See GAO, National Institutes of Health: Research Priority Setting, and Funding Allocations across Selected Diseases and Conditions, GAO-1 4-246 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 31, 2014). 3Fiscal year 2013 research funding data was made publicly available in March 2014. 4During our previous work, we confirmed the matches between RCDC categories and leading diseases and conditions with NIH. GAO-14-490R NIH Funding Update Page 1

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