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The Brigham research enterprise had a lot to celebrate in 2022. With a high success rate in securing federal funding from the National Institutes of Health, Brigham researchers launched impactful studies spanning basic, translational and clinical research across departments and disease areas. This fall, when Allison Moriarty, MPH, senior vice president of Research Planning & Operations and Innovation, asked department chairs to share a few research success stories from the year, her inbox was quickly flooded with an outpouring of examples.

“Research is infused into everything that we do,” said Moriarty. “We find examples of research excellence in every corner of our hospital. Pick any disease or human condition and our researchers are likely working on it.”

During his annual Year in Review presentation, Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, Chief Academic Officer, highlighted these successes and the stability of the research enterprise, particularly in a turbulent year for health care.

“The research enterprise has been a port in a storm,” said Anderson. “Research is one of the defining characteristics of our institution and it’s one of the reasons that patients choose to come here—research not only provides stability for the hospital, it also drives progress in improving patient care and a foundation upon which to develop new and better treatments.”

By the Numbers

Publications and Recognition

• This year, Brigham researchers published more than 9,300 papers.
• 35 Brigham investigators were named to Clarivate’s 2022 Highly Cited Researchers list, a prestigious “who’s who” of influential researchers drawn from the highly cited papers that rank in the top 1 percent by citations for field and publication year.
• Ranked 6^th most impactful healthcare institution in the world in NatureIndex.

Operations and Funding

• The Brigham was ranked #2 among independent hospitals for research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 2022. The Brigham and Mass General have been ranked in the top three hospitals in terms of NIH support for more than 25 years.
  • Together, Mass General Brigham is the largest recipient of NIH funding in the country — collectively receiving $2.25 billion annually.
• When applying for grants, Brigham researchers have a 26 percent NIH success rate—higher than the national average of 21 percent.
• More than 2,000 active clinical trials.
• The Brigham Research Institute and Office for Research Careers distributed nearly $2.3M in awards to the research community in FY22.
  • The 10th BRIght Futures prize was awarded this year.
  • The Fund to Sustain Research Excellence was in the 15th year of supporting BWH investigators competing for NIH funding.
  • The Research Sundry Top-off program paid out more than $700,000 to investigators receiving new R01s in FY22.
  • IGNITE awarded $1,609,124 for FY22 in funding

Philanthropy

• In 2022, the Brigham celebrated 17 distinguished chair appointments. The highest honor the hospital can bestow on a faculty member, a distinguished chair recognizes extraordinary career achievement and provides support for continued innovation.
• 10 President’s Scholar awards have now been presented to Brigham investigators, including three new investigators named to the class of 2022. The philanthropy-supported program provides researchers with $300,000 in unrestricted funding ($100K per year for three years) to support them in pursuing promising new areas of research. Learn more about this year’s President’s Scholars.

Communications

• This year, the Brigham’s communications team promoted more than 155 papers through press releases, research briefs and “What’s New in Research” summaries.
• More than 387 tweets were sent out from its BrighamResearch Twitter account to more than 7,500 followers.
• Top performing research of 2022 included:
  • “Persistent circulating SARS-CoV-2 spike is associated with post-acute COVID-19 sequelae”
    • Preprint published in medRxiv; peer-reviewed paper published in Clinical Infectious Diseases; lead author David Walt, PhD.
  • Featured in 85 news stories world-wide, including Forbes, US News and World Report, and The Guardian.
  • 8,762 tweets which resulted in an upper bound of more than 20 million followers
  • “Is early-onset cancer an emerging global epidemic? Current evidence and future implications”
  • Published in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology; lead author Shuji Ogino, MD, PhD.
  • Ranked first out of 2,046 outputs from nature review clinical oncology.
  • Featured in 386 stories world-wide, including BBC News, CNN, and World Business News.
  • 773 tweets which resulted in an upper bound of more than 6.7 million followers
  • “Oxygen Supplementation among patients in the intensive care unit”
    • Published in JAMA Internal Medicine; lead author Eric Gottlieb, MD.
  • Featured in 329 news stories world-wide, including the Los Angeles Times, Time, The Washington Post, ABC News and The Associated Press.
  • 388 tweets which resulted in an upper bound of more than 2.5 million followers.
  • “Daytime eating prevents mood vulnerability in night work”
    • Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in September 2022; lead author Frank Scheer, PhD.
  • Featured in 154 news stories world-wide, including CNN, US News, Fortune, and CCTV.
  • 194 tweets which resulted in an upper bound of more than 1.4 million followers.

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