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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

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New Investigators Struggle to Find the Path to Independence

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While practicing rheumatologists face budgetary cuts in Medicare reimbursement, new investigators are facing a challenge of their own. Federal budget cuts and other vanishing funding sources are making it extremely difficult to support their research activities. “Over the past several years, sources of funding for these individuals have become increasingly restricted, with the Arthritis Foundation’s Arthritis Investigator award no longer available and the mentored Career Development Awards (K08 and K23) from the NIH affected by the federal budgetary constraints,” remarks ACR Research and Education Foundation (REF) President Leslie Crofford, MD.

Increase NIH Funding, Participate in Advocates for Arthritis

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The ACR consistently urges Congress to support issues relating to rheumatologists, rheumatology health professionals, and patients. The primary advocacy goals are: supporting of the “Arthritis Prevention, Control, and Cure Act of 2007” (H.R.1283/S.626) and the “Access to Medicare Imaging Act of 2007” (H.R.1293/S.1338), finding a permanent solution to the Medicare reimbursement issue, and increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—including the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—and other agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Medical and Prosthetic Research Program.