A small grants program improves medical education research productivity.

BACKGROUND: This study compared research collaboration and productivity among applicants to a small educational research grants program. METHOD: Brief interviews were conducted with 89% (8/9) of funded applicants and 55% (6/11) of unfunded applicants. RESULTS: Funded projects had an average 6.6 scholarly products per project and 3.8 interinstitutional collaborators with 72.5% continuing collaborations, compared with the unfunded group that had 2.8 products, 1.8 collaborators, and only 16% continuing collaborations. CONCLUSIONS: This program seems beneficial to research productivity and multiinstitutional collaboration.

Assessing awareness, knowledge and use of folic acid in Kansas women between the ages of 18 and 44 years.

UNLABELLED: Taking folic acid daily, before and during early pregnancy, has been proven to reduce neural tube birth defects (NTD). Unfortunately, many women fail to take it daily as recommended. OBJECTIVES: To assess women's self-reported awareness, knowledge and use of folic acid. Methods Data were obtained by cross-sectional, random digit-dialing, computer-assisted telephone interviews with 250 women in Kansas. Associations were determined by chi-squared analysis. RESULTS: Eighty-eight percent of childbearing age women in Kansas have a general awareness of folic acid, 20% have knowledge that it reduces birth defects, but only 25% report taking it daily. Awareness was associated with high school or greater education (P < .0001), incomes over $25,000 (P = 0.0003), being married (P = 0.0035), being white (P = 0.0135), having health insurance (P = 0.0152) and being capable of pregnancy (P = 0.0119). Knowledge that folic acid reduces birth defects was associated with being aware of the USPHS recommendation (P < .0001), being capable of pregnancy (P = 0.0043), being pregnant (P = 0.0061), and being aware of folic acid (P = 0.0379). Taking folic acid daily was associated with currently being pregnant (P = 0.0126). CONCLUSIONS: Women less likely to take folic acid on a daily basis were young, non-Caucasians who reported less education, less income and no health insurance. Based upon these data, multi-level education campaigns that specifically target lower-SES women should be considered.

Research funding at colleges of osteopathic medicine: 15 years of growth.

CONTEXT: Colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) trying to stimulate research and develop research infrastructures must overcome the challenge of obtaining adequate funding to support growing research interests. The authors examine changes in research funding at COMs during the past 15 years. OBJECTIVES: To track 1999-2004 data on COM research funding, COM faculty size, educational backgrounds of principal investigators receiving funding, and funding institutions. To compare these data with published results from 1989 to 1999. METHODS: Data on number of grants, funding amounts by extramural source, percent of total dollars by extramural source, percent of total dollars by COM, and total amount of extramural funding were obtained from the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine databases. Data on the Osteopathic Research Center (ORC) were obtained from the ORC's databases. RESULTS: Research, both in terms of number of grants and funding amounts within the osteopathic medical profession, increased substantially from 1999 to 2004. The largest single source of funding remained the National Institutes of Health. The number of COMs whose research funding exceeded $1 million annually more than doubled, increasing from 5 in 1999 to 12 in 2004. The osteopathic medical profession's decision to direct research dollars into a national research center devoted to research specific to osteopathic manipulative medicine resulted in an almost eightfold return on initial investment in 4 years. CONCLUSIONS: The amount of research productivity at a COM may be aligned with the size of the COM's full-time faculty, suggesting that once "critical mass" for teaching, service, and administration are achieved, a productive research program can be realized. Expanding the evidence base for those aspects of medicine unique to the osteopathic medical profession is dependent on the future growth of research.