ACEP joined 10 medical specialty societies to file an amicus brief on June 16 urging the court to avoid reducing the funding that makes vital medical research possible. The administration’s policy caps indirect costs at 15 percent for all new NIH grants. Previously, the indirect cost rate for each grant had been independently negotiated. In the brief, ACEP and its partner groups emphasized the impact of the policy on physicians and patients.

“A disruption in NIH funding of medical research and clinical trials will profoundly set back the advancement of medical care,” the brief stated. “Not only will a disruption in NIH funding destroy critical ongoing clinical trials and medical studies, it will impair the development of clinical practice protocols and guidelines and therefore will harm patients. Those protocols and guidelines will be based on less reliable and fewer up-to-date studies. Moreover, guidelines and treatment protocols will be updated less frequently, thereby reducing health care professionals’ access to the latest insights into patient care.”

ACEP proudly stands in solidarity with leading members of the medical research community to protect the vital work that sets the foundation for high-quality emergency care in emergency medicine and across the medical specialties.