In This Issue
From Capitol Hill
Health Agency Leaders Testify Before Congress
House and Senate Pass FY09 Budget Resolutions
CDC Director Again Calls for $15 Billion Agency Budget
Academic Coalition Voices Concerns Over Stagnant NIH Budget
From Research!America
2008 Advocacy Awards Gala and National Forum Summary 
Research!America Welcomes New Board Members
Members of Congress Thanked in Ad
In the News
Media Matters: Research in the News
Regular Features
President's Message
Member Spotlight: Duke Medicine
Health Agency Leaders Testify Before Congress
On March 5, the heads of four major health agencies testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Elias Zerhouni, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health; Julie Louise Gerberding, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and Terry Cline, PhD, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; discussed recent progress and the importance of research at their respective agencies.
Committee Chair David Obey (WI) led a frank discussion of the costs of not investing in health research and noted that the nation expects to lose 6,000 scientists under the president's FY09 budget proposal. He then encouraged responses as to why Americans should care.
Zerhouni said that "the capacity of our country to react to current and future problems will depend on a trained, committed, talented scientific workforce. Every time we can't sustain our purchasing power, it really hits scientists, especially early-career scientists." He urged Congress to continue its support for NIH: "We must continually sustain the momentum of U.S. biomedical research or risk losing it."
Of AHRQ's priorities, Clancy said, "We have to move much, much faster to translate investments that taxpayers have made in scientific research into the health care that people get right now." She added, "Additional investment in research that helps identify the highest value services and how we provide them most efficiently is part of the foundation in getting to universal access to care."
In her testimony, Gerberding asked , "Why, if we're the nation that spends the most on health, aren't we the healthiest nation?" She described the public health system as a highway that starts with research, "one that is not receiving the attention that it deserves."
Rep. Betty McCollum (MN) asked, "When I see these kinds of cuts and flat funding, I really wonder how you're going to achieve, one, the goals that the American people have asked you to achieve and, two, your own goals." Zerhouni observed, "In my whole career, I've never had to manage a stretch of very difficult priority-setting."
Gerberding said CDC still has more to do to modernize its research facilities. She thanked Congress for its funding support for these overdue upgrades. Obey noted that "the administration has zero-budgeted that this year."
House and Senate Pass FY09 Budget Resolutions
Prior to the spring recess, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed their respective budget resolutions. The House resolution (H. Con. Res. 312) included $22 billion more than the president's proposed budget, and the Senate resolution (S. Con. Res. 70) included $18 billion more. Anticipating such increases, the White House issued a threat to veto any appropriations that exceed the president's proposed funding levels.
The Campaign for Medical Research wrote members of the House and Senate Budget Committees, supporting additional funding. The Senate budget resolution initially included $950 million more than the president's request for the National Institutes of Health to bring the total budget in 2009 to $30 billion.
An amendment to add an additional $2.1 billion for the NIH, offered by longtime champions Sens. Arlen Specter (PA) and Tom Harkin (IA), was adopted with overwhelming bipartisan support, 95 to 4. Although this was a significant recognition of the importance of research to improve health, the impact may be limited because the budget resolution is nonbinding and cuts to other programs would be required to offset the increases to NIH.
In the House, champions Reps. Edward Markey (MA), David Reichert (WA), Janice Schakowsky (IL), Christopher Shays (CT), Joe Courtney (CT) and Christopher Smith (NJ) invited their colleagues to join them on a letter to Appropriations Chair David Obey (WI) and Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (CA) in support of a 6.5% increase for the NIH in FY09. A total of 179 members signed on to the letter. For updates on funding for research to improve health in FY09, please visit www.researchamerica.org/advocacy.
CDC Director Again Calls For $15 Billion Agency Budget
On February 27, Julie Louise Gerberding, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visited Capitol Hill. She spoke to more than 30 congressional staff and several dozen partner organizations about the importance of public health and CDC's work. She said that the current "health care" reform debate should include a stronger role for public health and prevention. Joining Gerberding were directors from the CDC's Health Promotion, Chronic Disease Prevention, Injury Prevention and Healthcare Quality Promotion centers.
The briefing was followed by an extensive question and answer period. Campaign for Public Health staff asked Gerberding if the president's proposed budget would meet the needs of the CDC. She responded by highlighting her 2006 and 2007 professional judgment budgets that call for a $15 billion agency by 2011 and a core program funding line that is a billion dollars higher than President Bush recently proposed. More analysis is available at www.FundCDC.org .
Academic Coalition Voices Concern Over Stagnant NIH Funding
A group of concerned universities and research institutions released A Broken Pipeline? Flat funding of the NIH puts a generation of science at risk, before a March 11 hearing on the same topic held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. The focus of this report was the impact of the fifth consecutive year of flat NIH funding on young investigators.
In the report, 12 exceptional early career scientists tell the impact of flat NIH funding on their research. The report cited Research!America's U.S. Investment in Health Research to make the case for increased research funding.
Drew Gilpin Faust, PhD, Harvard University president, described the current funding climate as a ladder of discouragement, where the success rate for NIH research project grants has dropped from 32% in 1997 to 24% in 2007 and to an even lower rate of 18% for first-time applicants. Junior researchers received only 25% of the R01 grants from NIH in 2007 as compared to 29% in 1990. As a result of difficult times in funding, the group warned of the risk of losing a generation of committed scientists and urged a return to consistent and robust funding for research. Visit www.brokenpipeline.org.
Research!America Welcomes New Board Members
Four
new board members were elected at the Research!America annual meeting March 18.
In his role as chief medical officer for Pfizer Inc, Joseph M. Feczko, MD, is directly involved in shaping medical policy internally and partnering with other stakeholders in health care to enhance the public's understanding of the value of industry and innovation.
Jacqueline Lovelace Johnson has been chair of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute Board of Directors since 1992, overseeing LRRI Board activities. LRRI continues the research begun by her great uncle, William R. Lovelace, MD, and her father, W.R. "Randy" Lovelace, MD, more than 50 years ago.
Randy Siegel is president of Parade Publications and publisher of PARADE, the most widely read magazine in America. He is responsible for the company's day-to-day operations as well as its overall strategy. Siegel was named PARADE's publisher in 2003, after serving as executive vice president, responsible for marketing, digital media and strategic partnerships with its 400 distributing newspapers.
The Honorable Billy Tauzin has been president and chief executive officer of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) since January 2005. Prior to that, he had a long and distinguished public service career, including 13 terms representing the 3rd Congressional District of Louisiana.
See www.researchamerica.org/board_directors to learn more about our board.
Members of Congress Thanked in Ad
More
than 25% of members of Congress have participated in Your Congress–Your
Health,
an initiative from Research!America, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation and
our partners. All members of Congress have been invited to complete a
questionnaire about where they stand on medical, health and scientific
research. The questions resulted from public input through PARADE magazine's Web site.
Those members of Congress who had completed the questionnaire by March 11 were featured in a full-page ad on the inside front cover of The Hill newspaper on March 13. The initiative is also being advertised through PSAs on AARP's newly redesigned Web site at www.aarp.org.
Visit www.yourcongressyourhealth.org for a complete list of partners and to see if your representative and senators have responded. Ask members of your delegation who haven't responded to participate.
Media Matters
Campaigning for Research
CongressNow reported that the Science and Technology Working Group, composed of lawmakers and scientists, led by Rep. Rush Holt (NJ) and Rep. Judy Biggert (IL), is stirring up support for scientific research funding. The group's call for increased funding for research is timely, as appropriations bills are being developed in Congress.
Another call for increased research funding was recently issued by five medical research advocacy groups: the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, the Campaign for Medical Research, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the National Health Council and Research!America. In a press statement, the group asked Congress to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health, noting that the NIH budget has been flat for five years and will continue to suffer if the president's budget proposal is adopted.
NIH Peer Review Process
Nature magazine reported on recommendations to the NIH about its peer-review process for research grants. Two panels, one made up of senior NIH officials, and the other consisting of external scientists, presented their recommendations. Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, NIH director, will now consider the report. He said he plans to assemble an implementation team within the next two months.
FDA Budget and Strategic Plan
In a Wall Street Journal interview, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said, "I think to do what we need to do requires substantially more dollars than what has been invested in the FDA thus far. The commissioner's strategic plans include updating the agency's aging computer systems, replacing some FDA inspectors overseas, improving food safety and giving more weight to the FDA's Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology, which regulates the safety of marketed drugs.
During Research!America's 2008 National Forum, which aired on C-SPAN, von Eschenbach said, "The right delivery of health and medical care cannot happen until the FDA is able to make the right regulatory decisions to bring the right medicines and treatments to people," and "this will only happen if we change the existing system."
Evaluating Global Health Programs
Public health interventions in developing countries do not include sufficient follow- up studies to measure the effect of the interventions, according to an article by Bob Grant in The Scientist. The United Nations Children's Fund, the World Bank and the NIH's John E. Fogarty International Center have all conducted internal evaluations leading them to conclude that measuring outcomes is not a central part of global health interventions. Roger I. Glass, MD, PhD, director of the Fogarty Center, told Grant that "there are many things that can interfere with our ability to implement an intervention. That's an area where we've paid precious little attention."
President's Message
It's curious
how the top leaders of the health research enterprise responded to journalist
Susan Dentzer's questions, framed as an historical review taking place in 2030
looking back at 2008: "Did we fail to invest in research at a critical
point?" and "What were the opportunity costs and the opportunities
lost?" Want to know what they posed as specific recommendations for
accelerating research and speeding the translation of research to practice, for
changing incentives, for connecting research & development to policy, for
putting evidence to work, for turning "angst into anger" and then
action? View the webcast of our March 18th National Forum at www.researchamerica.org/forums.
Also check our Web site to review the stirring call to action delivered by Research!America Chair The Honorable John Edward Porter at our 12th Annual Advocacy Awards Gala. "Your country needs you … do something outside your comfort zone and make a difference for science."
TAKING ACTION NOW was the theme of March 18, and it will remain Research!America's theme for many months to come. Check this issue and our Web site for suggestions and tools-you- can-use to get involved as an advocate for research in this important year when every member of the House of Representatives, one third of the Senate and the next president will be elected. Whether all, some or none of these individuals have research for health in their platforms, in their hearts and on their action agenda is up to all of us who are deeply committed to better health — smart health, thanks to research. Let's get to work!
Duke Medicine
Duke
Medicine is a research intensive academic health center whose mission is to
transform medicine through innovative research and care delivery. Duke is
committed to socially relevant education, translational research, compassionate
patient care and global healthcare solutions, and its health system, medical
and nursing schools are ranked among the very best in the nation.
Duke Medicine is committed to an "innovation continuum." The institution invests in basic discovery science, committing resources for clinical and translational research through the new Duke Translational Medicine Institute. Duke is moving toward personalized medicine and engaging in broad global research activities through its Global Health Institute and partnerships with foreign universities and governments, such as that to establish the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School.
"One successful strategy in advancing research is enhancing public awareness through partnerships, with organizations such as Research!America and the Association of American Medical Colleges, and through our government and media relations programs," said Victor J. Dzau, MD, chancellor for health affairs. "Recently we joined six other academic medical centers in Washington to make known the impact of the flat National Institutes of Health budget on our talented young scientists. We encourage our scientists and students to speak to the public. The challenge always is competition with other political and public priorities."
The medical center's target audiences include its own scientists and students, donors, the general public, and government and funding agencies.
"Many of Duke's leaders meet with influential audiences, but our media, government relations and development teams have carried much of the responsibility for communicating our research news and needs," Dzau said. "New research-focused Web sites and publications are in the works to provide new options for reaching our audiences."
Duke is committed to addressing health disparities domestically and globally.
"We have public and private partners for these activities through the health system and the Duke Global Health Institute, which is developing research and training opportunities for students and trainees," Dzau said.
NIH funding remains the largest source of support for the medical center. Although the medical school ranked No. 2 in NIH dollars received in FY06, Duke scientists are feeling the effects of a constrained NIH budget.
"We are concerned by the likely long-term negative impact on today's young scientists, and, like other institutions, are turning more to private support including philanthropy," Dzau said. "An increase in major private foundations and the shift of public support toward infectious disease and translational research has helped some of our scientists, but many are still under pressure."
Duke Medicine has been a Research!America member since 1989. Dzau said Research!America membership materials are important communication tools for him and his faculty.
"We focus on education, research, clinical care, and service to our community, and we rely on Research!America to provide a trusted and unified voice for science, which it does admirably," he said.
Visit www.dukemedicine.org.
Research!America members can download the entire April Research Advocate
using their member log in. E-mail kfuller@researchamerica.org if you need your log-in information.