ACP policy update 2025: How federal funding freezes could undermine clinical innovation and training

In a discussion with Medical Economics at the American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine Meeting 2025, Brian Outland, PhD, director of regulatory affairs at ACP, explains how federal funding freezes — including those impacting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) — could disrupt the broader health care ecosystem, from clinical tools to physician training.

“These freezes … especially on the VA, [are] a tough one,” Outland said. “Because a lot of the training and research and tools … come out of the VA into the private sector. So freezing that will have an impact on new technology, new tools, and those types of things.”

He warned that delays in innovation and information transfer could directly affect care quality. “It will slow down things coming out to the community, to the private sector … [and] being able to do high quality care for their patients — the newest information and technology that’s available — they may not have it readily accessible,” he said.

Graduate medical education funding is also at risk. “Those dollars won’t be there to perhaps sustain those programs,” Outland said, even as the U.S. faces a growing need for primary care physicians. “It can slow down that process.”