Buoyed by an increase of $14.5 million, Wake Forest University School of Medicine ranked 34th among all medical schools in funds received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2002.
It marked the highest position the school has ever achieved.
The school also passed the $100 million mark in NIH funding for the first time, reaching a total of $104,803,817. Last year, the school ranked 35th with a total of $90,303,296.
"The 16 percent increase is really outstanding," said James E. Smith, Ph.D., associate dean for research. "It clearly demonstrates the excellence and entrepreneurial faculty that we have here in the research enterprise."
Smith said the Department of Public Health Sciences "really led the way. They are responsible for about 40 percent of the gain."
That department jumped from $16.3 million to $24.3 million and ranked second in the nation among the 54 medical schools that have similar departments. "They continue to advance us and I am very proud of them," Smith said.
Other top 25 departments include Physiology/Pharmacology, 5th , Neurology, 12th, Cancer Biology, 15th, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 17th, Radiologic Sciences, 18th, Anesthesiology, 20th, Family Medicine, 21st, Pathology, 21st, and Surgical Sciences, 22nd.
Public Health Sciences brought in far and away the most money, but the Department of Internal Medicine was awarded grants totaling nearly $15.9 million, Physiology/Pharmacology, $15.5 million, Pathology, $8.4 million and Neurology, nearly $8.1 million.
### Contact: Robert Conn (rconn@wfubmc.edu), Karen Richardson (krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu) or Barbara Hahn (bhahn@wfubmc.edu) at (336) 716-4587.