Tomas Nuño, PhD, Receives NIH Loan Repayment Programs Award

September 22, 2015

Tomas Nuño, PhD, research assistant professor in the University of Arizona Department of Emergency Medicine, received approval for his application to the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Division of Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs). He was funded under the Health Disparities Research Program.

The overarching aim of Dr. Nuño’s work at the UA Department of Emergency Medicine is to identity disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes and to find methods to prevent and control cardiovascular disease among emergency medicine populations, including racial and ethnic minorities and rural populations. He has expertise with population-based intervention research methods and the use of large national databases.
The award is for a period of two years and is funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). 

About the NIH Loan Repayment Program:
The NIH LRPs are a set of programs established by Congress and designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. The escalating costs of advanced education and training in medicine and clinical specialties are forcing some scientists to abandon their research careers for higher-paying private industry or private practice careers.

The LRPs counteract that financial pressure by repaying up to $35,000 annually of a researcher's qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in NIH mission-relevant research. Since tomorrow's medical breakthroughs will be made by investigators starting in their research careers today, the LRPs represent an important investment by NIH in the future of health discovery and the wellbeing of the nation.