Family medicine
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While the specialty of family practice has achieved parity with other specialties in many areas, it lags behind in research productivity. This article explores current and historical funding levels of family medicine research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR). ⋯ The NIH is an increasingly important source of support for family medicine researchers, while AHCPR support has plateaued. Even though NIH support of family physician researchers is increasing, the proportion of NIH funding awarded to family medicine departments remains below the proportion of US medical school faculty who are family physicians. One possible cause of this discrepancy is a lack of a locus of primary care and family medicine research funding.