Our topic for the next #LCSM Chat on Thursday, April 6^th at 5 PM Pacific/ 8 PM Eastern is “Who Needs Research Anyway: How Have You Been Impacted by Lung Cancer Research?” The moderator for this chat is Dr. David Tom Cooke (@DavidCookeMD)

In its most recent budget outline, the Trump administration is looking to propose an 18% cut to the National Institute of Health’s (NIH; @NIH) $31.7 billion budget (#trumpbudget).  In addition to this funding cut, the Trump administration proposes to 1) reorganize the current NIH institute structure and 2) fold the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ; @AHRQNews) into the NIH, potentially diffusing it’s $334 million budget into other NIH institutes that perform similar quality investigative work.  AHRQ funds research that focuses on patient safety and quality improvement.  For example AHRQ has funded the development of lung cancer screening decision aides, and cancer specific patient-reported outcome measures to improve the care of cancer patients.

It is clear that such cuts to the NIH are unprecedented.  During the sequestration of fiscal year 2013, the NIH budget was reduced by 5%, leading to 700 fewer research project awards and the funding rate for grant applications dropped to 16.7 percent, the lowest level in 20 years.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Dr. Tom Price has stated that the cuts to the NIH budget would be offset by reduced payments to university indirect costs.  Indirect costs are what host research institutions charge to provide administrative support for research awards.  They can be as high as 40% of awarded grants.

On Thursday, April 6^th we hope to personalize the lung cancer research enterprise.  For this Twitter conversation “Lung Cancer Research” is anything federally funded (or supported), experimental and hypothesize based.  It can range from clinical trials testing a novel drug, to the development of a device or test, or an epidemiologic study (like lung cancer screening), or healthcare systems improvement evaluation.  We want to hear from Lung Cancer patients and their families, as well as investigators.  Of course all stakeholder voices are welcomed and expected.

We will use the following topic questions to lead the discussion:

T1 How have you or someone you know benefited from #lungcancer research? #LCSM

T2 What #lungcancer research has @NIH funded? How has this led to improvements in cancer outcomes or patient care? #LCSM

T3 What are indirect research costs, and why are they necessary? Do you think they are excessive? #LCSM

T4 What do you want to tell congress about @NIH #lungcancerfunding and/or #cancer research funding? #LCSM

Please join us for what should be a lively discussion. If you’re new to tweet chats, please check out this primer.

References:

• AAAS. First Trump Budget Proposes Massive Cuts to Several Science Agencies.

https://www.aaas.org/news/first-trump-budget-proposes-massive-cuts-several-science-agencies. Accessed April 2, 2017.

• Science. Trump wants 2018 NIH cut to come from overhead payments.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/trump-wants-2018-nih-cut-come-overhead-payments. Accessed April 2, 2017.

• AHRQ. AHRQ Research. https://www.ahrq.gov/research/ahrq-research.html. Accessed April 2, 2017.
• AHRQ. Lung Cancer Screening Tools. http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm/tools-and-resources/patient-decision-aids/lung-cancer-screening/. Accessed April 2, 2017.