The federal research cuts for research are an “existential threat” for university medicine that will have repercussions for patient care in the United States, according to a new report by the Association of American Medical Colleges, stressing what he calls significant damage already caused to the nation.
The association, which represents 172 medical schools in the United States and Canada and more than 490 teaching hospitals and health systems, noted in the Wednesday report that the proposals of the GOP tax chamber and spending reductions could lead to a loss of health insurance for 11 million people registered in the coverage of Medicaid or the affordable care law and the endangered for the half of medical students.
This is the first time in recent history when the three university medicine missions – research, education and patient care – are threatened, said Heather Pierce, principal director of the association’s scientific policy. As a rule, she said, when one is under fire, the others can compensate to ensure that health care is not compromised.
“This is the first time that all university medicine missions have been simultaneously simultaneously these threats from our federal partners,” said Pierce.
If this trend continued, said Pierce, the United States will probably be faced with a shortage of doctors,, Stagnation in scientific progress and a decrease in the quality of medical care.
Academic health systems, which include medical schools and teaching hospitals, educate future doctors and investigate complex medical cases, treating the most sick patients. The new report indicates that these institutions are also twice as likely as other hospitals to provide clinical services such as trauma centers, organ transplantation centers, delivery rooms and drug addiction.
The report indicates that patients treated in large teaching hospitals – where future health professionals receive practical practical training – have until 20% chances of survival than those treated in non -teachers hospitals.
The reductions in financing these establishments have effects that decrease to patients nationally. The report noted that academic health systems is carrying out the majority of research funded by the National Institutes of Health, and the complex care of patients is only made possible thanks to in -depth medical research.
In June, more than 1,100 NIH grants have been dismissed since the start of the second Trump administration, according to the report. These include at least 160 clinical trials to study HIV / AIDS, cancer, mental health problems, drug addiction and chronic diseases.
Although not all clinical trials imply vital treatments, for some people with diseases that do not have established therapies, trials can be their only option.
“We have made great progress in many diseases, but there are many diseases where we have a long way to go to be able to offer a newly developed treatment that we know that we can improve or extend their lives,” said Pierce. “With these diseases, in many cases, the only way to try to go ahead is what scientists think they are the best potential treatments for these diseases.”
Some of the clinical trials have been terminated before their conclusion, which is contrary to ethics, she said.
“Stop a clinical trial before its end at any time, even if all the patients who are in the clinical trial end their processing, before the analysis of the data is carried out, before the publication of the results, makes this clinical trial less useful and less ethical,” she said.
Patients take the risk of uncertainty when they join clinical trials, without knowing if the treatment will be effective. “If we never know the result, all this time, all these patients who launch everything they have done to advance science have been wasted. In some cases, it could be years of progress. ”
The report notes that the financing of the research has made a crucial contribution to rescue care.
For example, the NIH financed the development of First artificial heart valve With the first successful replacement at the NIH Clinical Center in 1960. Today, more than 100,000 replacements in heart valve are carried out each year. And a study also revealed that the financing of the NIH has contributed to the research associated with Each new drug approved from 2010 to 2019.
Shortage of doctors and decrease in the quality of care
Each year, medical schools and teacher hospitals who are members of the association of American Medical Colleges form around 77,000 residents nationally, making these institutions the main producers of primary care and specialties. Medicare compensates for part of the costs for the majority of trainees, and teaching hospitals fully cover the cost of training for the rest of the residents.
The proposed elimination of federal students of students’ assistance programs and the evolution of eligibility conditions for the forgiveness of loans would affect almost half of all medical students, the new report said.
If the investment does not increase, the association predicts that the nation will be faced with a shortage until 86,000 doctors by 2036.
While federal partnerships with research establishments continue to weaken and immigration restrictions are becoming more strict, the United States becomes a less attractive place for students to continue the sciences, Pierce said.
The nation has benefited from their long-standing global medical and scientific approach, she said.
“There is information shared between countries, people trained all over the world,” said Pierce. “The United States has always been the place where people want to come, trained to be scientists and trained to become doctors, and we took advantage of it.”
Almost half American graduate students in the STEM fields come from other countries. If the United States is not considered a place that will collaborate and welcome international researchers, students and researchers will leave, said Pierce.
She underlines that what makes us unique innovation is that research comes “not the support but the full partnership of the federal government”. A weakening of this partnership will make “more difficult for the United States to remain as an engine of innovation and scientific progress,” said Pierce.
A shortage of doctors associated with a drop in investments in research leads to the suffering of patient care, she said.
“When research stops, progress stops,” said Pierce. “Scientific progress towards more treatment, towards more remedies, towards a better quality of life, depend on this ecosystem (of university medicine) which is more intertwined than I think that anyone realized.”