Table 1.

NIH funding per active physician by specialty, 2011–2020

Specialty	Rank (based on average dollars of funding per active physician per year)	Grants (n)	Total grants awarded (%)	Average number of grants per active physician per year	Dollars of funding over the entire study period (millions)	% of total	Average number of active physicians, 2011–2020	Average dollars of funding per active physician per year (K)
Pathology	1	14 946	8.1	0.112	6366.7	7.6	13 311	47.8
Neurology	2	12 448	6.8	0.092	6001.6	7.2	13 539	44.3
Internal medicine/medicine	3	72 205	39.2	0.063	36 022.6	43.2	114 639	31.4
Psychiatry	4	19 029	10.3	0.050	8267.6	9.9	38 089	21.7
Neurosurgery	5	2956	1.6	0.055	1111.6	1.3	5410	20.5
Paediatrics	6	17 422	9.4	0.030	7896.5	9.5	57 967	13.6
Ophthalmology	7	5957	3.2	0.032	2380.8	2.9	18 684	12.7
Surgery	8	8171	4.4	0.032	3212.5	3.9	25 378	12.7
Otolaryngology	9	3198	1.7	0.034	1102.3	1.3	9485	11.6
Radiation-diagnostic/oncology	10	9562	5.2	0.025	3999.4	4.8	38 702	10.3
Dermatology	11	2270	1.2	0.019	764.5	0.9	11 803	6.5
Urology	12	1474	0.8	0.015	572.7	0.7	9922	5.8
Obstetrics and gynaecology	13	4343	2.4	0.010	1697.8	2	41 552	4.1
Physical medicine and rehabilitation	14	1124	0.6	0.012	357.9	0.4	9220	3.9
Orthopaedics	15	2218	1.2	0.012	750.2	0.9	19 222	3.9
Anaesthesiology	16	3770	2	0.0091	1434.7	1.7	41 391	3.5
Emergency medicine	17	1258	0.7	0.0031	550.2	0.7	40 395	1.4
Family medicine	18	2015	1.1	0.0018	848.5	1.0	112 396	0.8
Plastic surgery	19	16	0.0	0.00023	4.6	0.0	7079	0.1
Total	–	184 382	100	–	83 342.9	100	627 782	133

K, thousands; MM, millions; NIH, National Institutes of Health.