The department of obstetrics and gynecology is ranked fifth in the nation in research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“We are delighted by and proud of our current standing,” said Eli Adashi, professor and chair of the department. These grants total between $4 million and $5 million annually.
The new ranking represents a steady and significant rise in funding for the department. In 1994, the department was ranked in the 40s, and 12th last year. In fact, the ranking has never fallen, and has gone up every year on record, according to Adashi.
The U was one of 77 schools ranked by the NIH. The four that ranked higher than the U were the University of California?San Francisco, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Alabama.
According to Adashi, the ranking of some of the schools ahead of the U is largely driven by exclusively academic researchers, whereas the U’s ranking was accomplished strictly by the physicians who do research in addition to clinical work.
Adashi wants to increase the number of academic researchers in his department, creating a special unit to complement the department’s current efforts.
“It is a goal of mine to establish a leading reproductive sciences unit at the U medical school as soon as funds permit,” Adashi said.
Adashi’s plan is to recruit people who want to do bench work, which is basic reproductive research, as opposed to using clinicians to do research in addition to all the clinical work they do now.
The new researchers will typically have doctorate degrees or two other degrees in specialties and with training that the unit needs.
Adashi said the department needs laboratory equipment and space. He hopes to have the reproductive sciences unit ready to go in two to three years.
A portion of the new NIH funding is new grant money for research on the genetic determinants for urinary incontinence.
Another NIH grant funds the department’s efforts to minimize the high infant death rate in Tibet.
Genetics is prominent in other departmental research such as premature labor, infertility and high-risk obstetrics.