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National Institutes of Health who decides how much goes where? By Alexandra Matisoff-Li September 24, 1998 "Every year the National Institutes of Health spends $110 annually per death resulting from AIDS, compared with $2 per death from stroke and $3 per death from heart disease. Who decides and what's behind the politics? With a 1998 budget of nearly $14 billion, the NIH is the nations largest single funder of biomedical research. But few fixed rules govern how the NIH prioritizes the diseases it researches. The agency has weathered criticism that the funding process has become too politicized by congressional funding directives, earmarked for specific diseases, as the result of lobbying by special interest groups. And a recent report recommended the agency use more rigorously scientific methods of priority setting and spending and better justify spending decisions to Congress and the public. .... For the rest of the story...go to: http://www.nurseweek.com/features/98-9/fund.html