Assessing the Impact of the NIH CTSA Program on Clinical Trials Registered With ClinicalTrials.gov

Abstract

Since 2006, the US Congress has appropriated ~ 7 billion dollars in total toward the (CTSA) program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), representing ~ 1.5% of the NIH total budget. There is no doubt this investment has led to substantial improvements in clinical and translational research, but the impact of these large NIH-sponsored awards to academic medical centers have largely been documented by anecdotal accomplishments. This paper provides a purely quantitative assessment of the impact of these awards on clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. In particular, we find a dramatic increase in the number of registered clinical trials and clinical trial enrollment associated with the CTSA grant award. Additionally, the impact is shown to be magnified with the number of years of receiving CTSA funding.