The administration's budget proposes cutting funding to the National Institutes of Health by more than $7 billion in the next two years. That has many Stanford Health Policy researchers, including Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD, concerned.
I wrote about Chen in a recent article for Stanford Health Policy:
Jonathan Chen has a doctorate in computer science and could have his pick of lucrative jobs here in Silicon Valley today.
Instead, he pursued his medical degree and is working on ways to help physicians quickly mine clinical data to reach better diagnoses for their patients.
'I walked away from higher paying jobs because I was looking for a greater purpose in my work and a rewarding career,' said Chen, a physician-scientist at Stanford who was a VA Medical Informatics Fellow at Stanford Health Policy.
His funding — and that of thousands of other researchers — may be on the chopping block.
"This could signal real changes in what we do as individuals, as a division and as an institution," said Eran Bendavid, MD, an infectious disease physician and researcher who also receives NIH funding.
“Seeing the proposed research budget cuts gives me pause,” Chen said. “And I’m considering whether it is foolish for me to even be joining the academic ranks now, chasing down grants that will be increasingly difficult to come by, amidst a political climate that does not seem to care for science.”
Previously: Stanford researchers defend NIH and relevance of basic research and Stanford researchers protest NIH funding restrictions
Photo by Joseph Matthews/VA Palo Alto
