Structural racism became dominant in medical research.

The article reports a rapid rise in use of the term "structural racism" in medical literature and a sharp increase in NIH-funded projects mentioning it from 2020–2025; it also states NIH director Jay Bhattacharya is refocusing the agency toward evidence-based biomedical research.

A recent article reviews how the concept of "structural racism" rose from near absence in medical journals to a frequent explanation for health disparities. It highlights sharp growth in publications and a large increase in NIH projects and funding that mention the term between 2020 and 2025. The piece cites PubMed and NIH database counts and gives examples of funded programs and projects that used the concept. It concludes by noting a reported shift under NIH director Jay Bhattacharya toward funding grounded in traditional biomedical evidence. Key points: - PubMed indexed about 2,300 articles under "structural racism," with roughly 95% published after Jan. 1, 2020, and about 400 such papers listed in 2025 alone. - An NIH database search found nearly 750 projects mentioning "structural racism" from 2020–2025, with total project costs reported at almost $533 million; funding in 2025 was reported at just under $40 million across more than 70 projects. - Major NIH funders cited include the National Institute on Drug Abuse ($147 million), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities ($70 million), and the National Institute on Aging ($57 million) for projects referencing the concept. - The article gives examples of 2025 projects and programs cited by name, including a NIDA-supported Healthy Brain and Child Development project, a NIMHD-funded CREST training program limited to those described as underrepresented, and a NIA project linking race-related stress concepts to Alzheimer’s research. Summary: The article reports that the term "structural racism" became a prominent framing in academic medicine after 2020 and that related publications and NIH-funded projects increased markedly through 2025. It states that NIH leadership under Jay Bhattacharya is reported to be shifting the agency’s emphasis back toward evidence-based biomedical research and notes that sustaining this refocus through 2026 will be needed to complete the reported change.