The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) recently released its 2023 rankings of National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards, and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine achieved an impressive third-place ranking among all family medicine departments in the United States.
The rankings, which are released yearly, track the collective NIH funding secured by researchers associated with the department. As a department, DFPM was awarded more than $10 million in fiscal year 2023, surpassing its 2022 fourth-place ranking by more than $4 million.
The BRIMR standings are widely cited as a measure of scientific vitality and have been used to examine trends in funding for individual grantees and academic specialties. The department’s goal has been to maintain its standing as one of the top five in the BRIMR rankings.
“This is incredible news, and it speaks to the amazing work done not only by the PIs but all of the support staff,” said Interim Chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, John Barrett, MD.
“I expect that this ranking means we’ll remain the department with the highest BRIMR ranking within the School of Medicine,” adds Melanie Steiner, PhD, Director of Research and Scholarship for the department, citing DFPM’s long-standing reputation as a research powerhouse in the University of Utah’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.
In addition to department rankings, BRIMR provides individual researcher rankings. Several DFPM researchers ranked high, with Kelly Baron, PhD, MPH, DBSM, ranking fifth and Joseph Stanford, MD, MSPH, ranking sixth among family medicine researchers. Mia Hashibe, PhD, and Karen Schliep, PhD, MSPH, both ranked in the top 40.
The Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine overall also improved its ranking, from 36 in 2022 to 34 in 2023.