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Economic studies at the NIH encompass examination of how NIH activities affect and are affected by activities in other parts of the national and international economy. The Economic Studies Program (ESP) provides counsel and assistance to the Director, NIH and to the ACD in assessing the economic implications of the NIH's programs, particularly in terms of their impact on the costs and effectiveness of health care, on the nation's biomedical research and development establishment, and on the Nation's economy. The ESP will address the implications of national trends and Federal policies for the long-term support and management of high-quality investigators, equipment and facilities. In general, ESP assists the NIH to effectively communicate the contributions of biomedical research and development in quantified terms that are understandable to the public and their representatives.
The Economic Studies Program (ESP) within OSP includes analysis and support of studies in four general areas:
- The influence of disease burden and research opportunities on the allocation of funds within the NIH budget;
- The contributions of NIH research to increasing life expectancy, maintaining or enhancing health-related quality of life, and reducing the costs of illness and injury;
- The contributions of NIH to other national goals, such as economic growth and international competitiveness; and
- The cost and efficiency of conducting NIH-sponsored research and providing an adequate long-term supply of high-quality scientific investigators, equipment, and facilities.
When individual Institutes and Centers or other offices within OD have primary responsibility for a specific economic study, OSP collaborates as requested.
The historical examples that follow, indicate the types of economic studies supported by OSP:
- Workshop on Quality-of-Life Assessment;
- Economics Roundtable on Benefits of Medical Research;
- Workshop on Improving Measurement and Use of Data on Burden of Illness.
Developed contract studies of citations to science literature on patents and case studies to document the contribution of NIH research to the development of commercial products and to improvements in health care. Collaborated with Institute staff to develop over thirty case studies of the potential savings in costs of illness resulting from new research-based health care technologies. Prepared report to Congress summarizing disease-specific costs-of-illness estimates. With input from the Institutes, prepared a report on NIH collection and use of information on Burden of Illness. Collaborated with Office of Extramural Research and a DHHS working group on a study of proposals to control the increase of indirect costs on federally-sponsored research projects (by providing a multivariate statistical analysis and projections of indirect cost rates). Prepared analysis of potential effects of discounting royalty rates on NIH-owned patents for sales of pediatric vaccines to UNICEF for poor third-world nations. With Office of Technology Transfer, analyzed terms of commercial agreements between NIH grantees and private firms. Collected data and prepared tabular and graphical summaries to support the external review of the NIH Intramural Research Program; Managed updates of the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index, forecast future values, and assist with analysis and interpretation.
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