Hello, members of the Aging, Health Care, Health Economics, and
Children's Programs.
NIH recently released an announcement clarifying funding priorities for
health economics research going forward. This change could affect many
NBER research proposals, particularly to NIA and NICHD. While affirming
NIH interest in funding health economics research, this notice clarifies
that health outcomes and health-related behaviors should be the primary
focus, and the connection between the proposed research and improved
understanding of health should be made clear and explicit.
This directive should be considered when writing any research proposal
to NIH, and some topics may no longer be fundable. Examples of highest
priority areas for NIH include the study of factors, including financial
and non-financial incentives, which affect health-related behaviors,
healthcare utilization, and health outcomes or affect the adoption of
medical discoveries. Examples of areas deemed to be outside NIH's
mission include individual financial well-being, labor market outcomes,
industrial organization, or economic growth without specific ties to
health within the study aims; and the effect of health care financing,
including changes in the health care marketplace, on health care cost
but not// health outcomes.
The full announcement is reproduced below, and can be accessed directly
at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-16-025.html.
Regards, --Joan
*********************
Clarifying NIH Priorities for Health Economics Research
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice Number: NOT-OD-16-025
Key Dates
*Release Date:* November 25, 2015
Related Announcements
None
Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH <
http://www.nih.gov>)
Purpose
The purpose of this Guide Notice is to clarify NIH policy related to
funding health economics research. This Notice serves to communicate
NIH’s priority areas of health economics research as well as research
aims that generally fall outside of the NIH mission – to seek
fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems,
and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life,
and reduce illness and disability.
Applicants and potential applicants for NIH research grants are advised
to consult with NIH program officers in Institutes and Centers (IC)
appropriate to their proposed topic if they have questions about the
alignment of their research with IC program priorities.
*Background*
Health economics is the study of how scarce resources are allocated
among alternative uses for the care of sickness and the promotion,
maintenance, and improvement of health, including the study of how
health care and health-related services, their costs and benefits, and
health itself are distributed among individuals and groups in society.
Health economics research offers rigorous tools that can help NIH pursue
its overall mission to improve health, and is an integral part of the
interdisciplinary science that NIH supports. Many NIH-supported studies
in disease prevention and intervention, health behavior, and community
health incorporate methods and models from the economic sciences. Health
economic analyses are often included as part of larger NIH-funded
studies on clinical efficacy or effectiveness. NIH values economic
contributions to our understanding of the relationship between health
and society, and, to date, five Nobel Prizes in Economics have been
given to individuals who had received NIH support.
There are several federal agencies funding research for which health
economics is relevant. Therefore, it is useful to clarify how research
using health economics approaches serves the NIH mission in particular,
and what research is lower priority for NIH or likely to be judged as
not aligned with the NIH mission.
/Impact of Guide Notice/
*NIH will continue to accept applications involving health economics
research in which health outcomes and health-related behaviors are the
primary focus, and the connection between the subject(s) of the study
and improved understanding of health are clear and explicit.* The
following areas of economic research are identified as NIH-wide high
priorities, Institute- and Center-specific priorities, and areas outside
the scope of NIH’s mission.
*/Highest-priority Areas for NIH
/* NIH is especially interested in health economics research designed to
understand how innovations in treatment, diagnosis, prevention, and
implementation strategies can be most effectively deployed to improve
health and well-being as well as research aimed at designing better
interventions with these insights. Examples include, but are not
limited to, studies utilizing economic methodologies designed to:
* Measure or model the actual or potential impact of specific
interventions, approaches, or strategies on health-related
behaviors, healthcare utilization, and health outcomes.
* Understand behavioral, financial, and other factors that influence
the implementation, adherence, dissemination, and adoption of
medical discoveries into health care.
* Determine the impact of both financial and non-financial incentives
on health-related behaviors, healthcare utilization, and health
outcomes.
* Assess how environmental, social, economic, and other factors affect
health status, health-related behaviors, healthcare utilization,
health outcomes (including health-related quality of life outcomes),
health disparities, and responses to interventions.
*/Institute- and Center-Specific Priorities
/* NIH may also fund other areas of health economics research, depending
on the mission-based priorities of individual NIH Institutes and Centers
(ICs) as communicated in, for example, strategic plans and funding
opportunity announcements. Such studies may include, but are not
limited to, research specific to an IC’s mission utilizing economic
methodologies that:
* Analyze organizational influences on the efficiency of the delivery
of IC-mission-relevant medical care that are primarily or
exclusively focused on healthcare utilization or other
health-related outcomes.
* Assess alternative models of delivering IC-mission-relevant care
with a focus on outcomes related to health, including health-related
behaviors and healthcare utilization.
* Measure the economic value of population health and health care
delivery relevant to an IC’s mission. Such studies may focus on
determining the effects of health status and/or health interventions
on broader societal economic outcomes, such as Gross Domestic
Product (GDP).
* Broadly describe and quantify the economic impact on society of
disease and disability, as well as the impact of IC-specific
research and/or evidence-based changes in health practice or health
policy.
*/Areas Outside of NIH’s Mission
/* A number of topics covered by health economics research, while still
valuable research endeavors, are not sufficiently related to NIH’s
mission of improving health and reducing disability, and would be more
appropriately sponsored by other organizations and agencies. While NIH
acknowledges the importance and informative nature of such studies,
applications whose relationship to health is unclear or distantly
removed do not fall within the NIH’s mission. *Such studies are
minimally related to specific health outcomes at the population or
individual level.* Examples include, but are not limited to, studies
designed to:
* Understand individual financial well-being, labor market outcomes,
industrial organization, or economic growth without a specific and
direct tie to health made within the study aims.
* Examine the financing of healthcare, including the impact of changes
in structure or function of the health care marketplace on broad
measures of health care cost but not health outcomes.
* Analyze the economics of health professions as they relate to
compensation, efficient delivery, or market value, as opposed to
health outcomes or access to quality health care.
* Estimate consumer demand for specific interventions, including
measures of price elasticity and the effects of healthcare marketing
strategies, in which the findings are designed to inform decisions
related to profitability, rather than the quality of care or health
outcomes.
* Assess the cost and efficiency of healthcare service delivery, in
which cost is the *primary or major factor* by which comparisons are
made, without considering clinical outcomes or quality of care.
As stated above, applicants and potential applicants for NIH research
grants are advised to consult with NIH program officers in Institutes
and Centers appropriate to their proposed topic if they have questions
about the alignment of their proposal with IC program priorities.
Inquiries
Please direct all inquiries to:
Carrie Wolinetz, PhD
Associate Director for Science Policy
Office of Science Policy
Telephone: 301-496-9838
Email: carrie.wolinetz_at_nih.gov <mailto:carrie.wolinetz_at_nih.gov>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Joan Stillwell
Program Manager
Aging Program, NBER
1050 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-588-0363
Received on Mon Dec 21 2015 - 23:40:03 EST
