The Economics of Heart Disease Research

There is a conspicuous void of analyses about the economic and policy analysis of heart disease research funding in the United States and in other countries. This book discusses the economic and policy dimensions of heart disease research—the leading cause of death in the United States and globally—and it provides a comprehensive overview of the contributions of the primary US funding agency for heart disease research, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) within the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). It offers policymakers metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program—a key funding program within NHLBI. It includes information focused on health policy, reauthorizations of the NHLBI’s programs, and more. The resulting book provides a useful structure to help decision makers understand the use and allocation of resources that support health research.

Albert N. Link is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University. He holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Richmond and a PhD in economics from Tulane University. Link’s research focuses on technology and innovation policy, the economics of R&D, and policy evaluation. He is Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Technology Transfer, co-editor of Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, and founding editor of Annals of Science and Technology Policy. He has authored or edited more than 70 books and published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

Alan C. O’Connor is Senior Vice President for Environment and Senior Economist in the Center for Applied Economics and Strategy at RTI International. He holds a BA in economics and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. O’Connor specializes in program evaluation, benefit–cost analysis, and research impact assessment, with a focus on small business and translational science programs. He is co-author of Battery Technology for Electric Vehicles and Public Investments in Energy Technology, and his research has appeared in journals including Science and Public Policy, Small Business Economics, and The Journal of Technology Transfer.

Chapter 1: Introduction: U.S. Trends in Heart Disease.- Chapter 2: The Economic Importance of Knowledge Transfers.- 
Chapter 3: The NHLBI and its Small Business Research Programs.- Chapter 4: The NHLBI SBIR Database.- Chapter 5: Knowledge Transfer Metrics from the NHLBI SBIR Survey.- Chapter 6: Characteristics of Knowledge Transfers from the NHLBI SBIR Research.- Chapter 7: Counterfactual Considerations.- Chapter 8: Summary Observations and Policy Suggestions to Enhance the NHLBI SBIR Program.