The BRIMR rankings are derived each year from data compiled and released by the National Institutes of Health shortly after the federal fiscal year closes. The NIH posts this data on its Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT) website in the form of a master Excel spreadsheet file called “Worldwide”, accessible under the “Awards by Location” tab.

All Department and PI award files to medical schools with the exception of physical medicine have been updated. Also awards to Hospitals and Schools of Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Veterinary Medicine have been revised.

A large number of changes in the NIH awards file were made for consistency so that the computer program would parse the data in a meaningful way. For example, when the same organization was given two names they were combined into a single entity. For example, the ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE was also named the ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, INC. Additionally, the term SCHOOL OF MEDICINE & DENTISTRY was changed to SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE in column I of Tables 3 and 4. Also for the sake of consistency, the term OVERALL MEDICAL (column I) was changed to SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. Several years ago 40% of all the funds awarded to a single medical school were credited to OVERALL MEDICAL. Today OVERALL MEDICAL involves multiple SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE, but not at the 40% rate. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota has been accepting medical students since 1972, but it is not listed as a Medical School. We’ve included it as one of the SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. However, none of its Departments are ranked because their awards were attributed to NONE in the NIH DEPT COMBINING NAME (column H).

In one case the same PI’s name was entered with and without a middle initial, which was changed to include the initial. Also a Department name (INTERNAL MEDICINE/MEDICINE) was misstated as MEDICINE in column H of Tables 3 and 4, and it was changed so that the computer would parse it correctly. Awards made to the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center Support were attributed to DERMATOLOGY, while the PI is in the Department of UROLOGY; the relevant tables were changed to reflect the current situation.

In the previous version, Vanderbilt School of Medicine and its clinical awards were divided between two entities. Now these have been combined. Also awards to the various departments of Albert Einstein College of Medicine have been revised.

~ Robert Roskoski Jr.