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A MedPage Today opinion article published Oct. 12, 2026, recounts a physician’s difficulty completing a new NIH biographical sketch for a multi-institution grant application. The account raises concerns about repetitive administrative work and the time it takes clinicians and researchers, but it does not establish how common these problems are or whether NIH plans changes.
A physician writing for MedPage Today described spending part of a Sunday completing a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) biographical sketch for a multi-year, multi-institution grant application, after a formatting error prevented certification. The Oct. 12 opinion article uses that experience to question whether repetitive administrative tasks in research and medicine could be made more efficient; it does not report an NIH policy change or a formal review of the platform.
The physician said collaborators on a large grant asked him and several partners to submit curricula vitae and NIH biosketches. His own materials had last been updated in 2023. He wrote that NIH had moved from an older form to a web-based platform where users enter and certify information, including career details, publications, honors, awards and contributions to science.
Some of the material was available to copy from a recent promotion packet or retrieve from public research databases, he said. But after completing the fields, he could not find a way to certify the document. Following unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue through the help page and online suggestions, he checked the form field by field and found an extra hard return at the end of an entry. Removing it allowed him to certify the document.
The writer also said certification required creating a separate identity credential through another website, in addition to the account used to access the NIH platform. He described the finished PDF as one of roughly a dozen investigators’ biosketches that would be attached to the grant application. His suggestion that reviewers might not read the documents was his own assessment, not a reported finding about how the application would be evaluated.
Administrative Work Behind Grant Applications
The account points to the time clinicians and researchers can spend on repetitive data entry, document handling and account verification alongside their research and patient-care responsibilities. The writer argues that information already held in publications databases or institutional records could be reused, reducing repeated entry and the chance that small formatting issues block a submission.
That is a concern about workflow and staff time, not evidence that the NIH form is broadly defective or that the process has caused a grant to fail. The article provides one person’s experience, without data on how many applicants encounter similar barriers, how long the process typically takes, or whether the required information could be safely transferred automatically.
The writer also acknowledges the purpose of identity checks and certification: confirming who is submitting information and guarding against fraud or misuse. Any effort to reduce administrative friction would need to preserve those safeguards and the accuracy of submitted records.
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From a 2023 CV to NIH Certification
The article is an opinion piece by a contributing physician, rather than an NIH announcement, investigation or independent assessment of its grant systems. Its central example is the author’s preparation of a biosketch for a large collaborative application, after his previous version had not been updated since 2023.
Beyond the NIH form, the writer compares the experience with paperwork in clinical practice, including forms sent by fax and durable medical equipment prescriptions that are printed and transmitted. He argues that electronic tools, including AI, might help populate forms using information already available. Those ideas are proposals in the article; it provides no test results, implementation details or evidence that AI is currently approved to complete or certify these records.
“So much redundancy, so much wasted energy, so many rules that someone thought were important to protect someone from something.”
— The physician writing in MedPage Today
How Widespread Are These Problems?
The article does not establish whether other NIH applicants have faced the same certification problem, whether the extra line break was a platform defect or a formatting issue in the author’s entry, or how frequently users need a separate identity credential. It also offers no response from NIH, no information about planned changes, and no comparative data on the time required by the old and new systems.
It remains unclear whether automated data transfer or AI could meet NIH requirements for accuracy, privacy and individual certification. The author’s view that the attached biosketches may not be read is not confirmed by information about the grant review process or this application.
The Grant Submission and Possible Fixes
The immediate next step described in the article is submission of the collaborative grant application with the investigators’ certified biosketches attached. The piece does not give a submission date, award decision timeline or outcome.
Any wider response would depend on information not provided in the account, including whether NIH receives similar reports and whether it changes guidance or the platform. For now, the author’s recommendations—to reduce duplicate entry and simplify workflows—remain proposals rather than announced reforms.
Key Questions
What happened with the NIH biosketch?
The physician said he completed an online NIH biographical sketch for a grant application but could not certify it until he removed an extra hard return from one field.
Did NIH announce a change to its grant application system?
No. The source is a physician’s opinion article recounting an individual experience; it reports no NIH announcement or policy change.
Why does the author want the process simplified?
He argues that repeated data entry, document handling and account setup take time from research and patient care. The article does not quantify the time burden across NIH applicants or clinicians.
Does the article show that AI can complete NIH forms?
No. The author suggests AI might help place existing information into forms, but provides no evidence that such a system is available, authorized or suitable for certifying grant materials.
What remains unknown about the reported problem?
The article does not say how common the formatting issue is, whether other applicants have encountered it, whether NIH plans to change the platform, or what happened to the grant application.
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