The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently published The Economic Impact of Publicly Funded Research Conducted by AAMC-Member Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals.
In 2009, the report noted, federal- and state-funded research by medical schools and teaching hospitals added nearly $45 billion to the US economy. This represents a return of approximately $2.60 in economic activity for every dollar invested by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in medical research at these institutions. Approximately 300,000 jobs, representing 1 in 500 US workers, were supported by publicly supported medical research at AAMC-member medical schools and teaching hospitals.
This results of this analysis may be helpful in encouraging additional federal, state and local funding, having demonstrated the significant return on investment for our economy of publicly-funded medical research.