The Research Advocate May-June 2010

In this Issue of The Research Advocate

Answers to America's Health Concerns through Global Health Research

Answers Group "Looking through a global health lens, we are able to uncover disease in the U.S.," said Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, of the Sabin Institute, at the May 7 Capitol Hill briefing "Lessons Learned Through Global Health R&D: What's in it for the U.S. and Our Health Care System."

The briefing, hosted in partnership with Research!America member The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and sponsored by the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Chairman Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), showcased the bipartisan nature of research for health and illustrated how U.S. investment in global health research offers the opportunity to think about U.S. health care in new ways.

Additional presenters Cyril Enwonwu, ScD, PhD, MDS, University of Maryland School of Dentistry; Jim Kazura, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; and Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, cited specific examples from their research that demonstrate how the U.S. is incorporating lessons for the benefit of health nationally and globally.

On World Malaria Day on April 25, the Research!America website highlighted the value and return on a strong U.S. investment in global health research by featuring internationally recognized malaria researchers.

Col. Kent Kester, MD, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, was quoted, "The U.S. Army's comprehensive malaria R&D efforts are essential to the health and medical readiness of the U.S. military personnel and support global health efforts."

Barry Beaty, PhD, of Colorado State University, said, "Health delivers the biggest bang for our buck; put in perspective, the very minor proportion of our [U.S.] economic dollar that is spent on global health research is arguably the most effective way we can protect ourselves from disease."

New Poll Findings

Nearly three-quarters of Americans are confident in our system for reviewing the effectiveness and safety of new medicines and medical devices, yet 41% say it takes too long to approve a drug. These are among the findings of a new poll commissioned by Research!America and Eli Lilly and Company.

When asked the most important role of the Food and Drug Administration, 59% say protecting Americans' safety; 17% say providing accurate information about benefits and risks; and 7% say regulating companies that produce medicines and medical products. The poll also shows strong public support of FDA collaborating more with academic centers of excellence to strengthen its expertise and capacity, and 94% support the idea that institutions conducting medical and health research-government, universities and private industry-should work together.

Given the high public expectations for medical progress, resources for FDA and our nation's health research agencies must keep pace.

Some other key data points:

76% say clinical research is of great value; the same number say they are likely to participate in a clinical study, but only 6% say their doctor has ever suggested they do so.
93% say it is important-and 69% say very important-for the U.S. to be a global leader in medical, health and scientific research.

The Research Enterprise Poll was conducted online by Charlton Research Company in February. The poll of 1,000 demographically representative American adults has a theoretical sampling error of +/- 3.1%. For more data from this and other Research!America polls, please visit www.researchamerica.org/poll_history.

New Gates Grant

Research!America has been awarded $1.7 million over 24 months from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This continuing partnership enables us to advance our collective efforts to foster a U.S. policy environment more conducive to increasing appropriations.

Your Candidates-Your Health to Launch Soon

For the 2010 elections, Your Candidates-Your Health in the coming weeks will ask candidates for Congress to tell America their views on research and health-related issues. See www.yourcandidatesyourhealth.org and contact mmgowan@researchamerica.org to become a supporting partner.

Members Take Action: American Academy of Physician Assistants

Bill Leinweber The American Academy of Physician Assistants is the only national professional association that represents all PAs across all medical and surgical specialties in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the armed forces and the federal services. AAPA provides comprehensive support and advocacy for physician assistants so that they may, in turn, provide patients with increased access to quality, cost-effective health care.

Physician assistants are a cadre of highly trained professionals who extend the work of physicians in every field of medicine. The AAPA represents the more than

74,000 certified PAs in the United States.

The PA profession was created in the late 1960s during expansion of the U.S. health care system.

In 2008 the late Paul G. Rogers, Research!America chair emeritus and former member of Congress, received honorary membership in the Academy in part for his support of the Comprehensive Health Manpower Training Act of 1971 that helped grow the PA profession.

The recently passed health care reform legislation will again expand access of care.

"An already strained system will become even more strained," said Bill Leinweber, executive vice president and chief executive officer. "PAs are called out in the reform legislation and will be critical for filling the gaps."

In March, AAPA presented a summit to solidify the PA research agenda. Research!America President Mary Woolley moderated a panel.

"There is very little systemic research about the work of PAs," Leinweber said. "It is broadly accepted that PAs are critical to health outcomes, but we need more research about the value, including economic value."

For more about the Academy and its upcoming Annual Conference in Atlanta, visit www.aapa.org.

New on the Web

NARSAD Research Quarterly is available as an online publication at www.narsad.org. NARSAD is a Research!America member.

A beta version of a new FasterCures website, TRAIN Central Station, has been launched at www.fastercures.org/TRAIN. FasterCures is a Research!America member.

Baylor College of Medicine, a Research!America member, has two websites, BioEd online, www.bioedonline.org, and K8 Science, www.k8science.org, to

address teachers' need for science information and teaching materials.

Research!America Adds Value For Our Members

Research!America stands on a reputation of innovative advocacy that generates results serving our mission and the interests of our members:
For the 2010 elections, Your Candidates -Your Health will ask candidates for Congress to tell America their views on research to improve health. This constituent education initiative provides information about where candidates stand on critical health and research issues in an easy-to-search online resource. Responses to the 2010 questionnaire and previous responses to Your Congress-Your Health and Your Candidates-Your Health will be available on www.yourcandidatesyourhealth.org.
We led the effort, mobilized our leadership and grassroots, and boldly supported Sen. Arlen Specter's successful call for $10 billion for NIH in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. After five years of flat funding, ARRA funds being disbursed across the nation are a vital reinvestment in U.S. health-related research.
We are committed to maintaining our leadership role in assuring that research is positioned as part of the solution to the nation's economic and health challenges.
Research!America began commissioning polls in 1992 in an effort to understand public support for medical, health and scientific research. These polls have proven invaluable to our member organizations and, in turn, to the fulfillment of our mission to make research a higher national priority.
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President's Message

Mary Woolley

The announced retirements of House Appropriations Chair David Obey and other leaders in Congress and the number of closely contested primaries nationwide make this an extremely important election year for research advocates to make an impact. Next year, many new members of Congress will be voting on our issues for the first time. If they haven't already heard the case for research and felt the constituent force behind it, we will find it hard to have much influence. Thus Your Candidates-Your Health, the voter education initiative we produce each election year with many of our members, is all the more important. This award-winning initiative, which makes it possible to compare how candidates answer questions we have also asked the public, will be launched mid-summer (see above).

We have seen in very recent poll results (also above) that Americans are eager for the strengthened partnership recently announced between the NIH and the FDA that will speed discovery to patients. We also see continued support for public-private partnerships and research as a solution to controlling health care costs. The public understands the link between research, innovation and a strong economy. And the public isn't standing on the sidelines; Ohioans recently voted by a 62% margin to pass a bond issue to drive research and technology. In addition, the public is increasingly effective as advocates-for their health, their loved ones' health and for research, the future of health. This was my theme in my May 15 commencement address to the graduates of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Media Matters

Local Investment in Research Pays Off

The Denver Post profiled the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado Denver, a growing health care and research hub that used to be an Army post. The campus brought in $328 million to the local economy and created 2,904 jobs in 1995, the year it was slated for closure. In 2008, the new campus brought in $3.5 billion and employed 15,900 people. The university is a Research!America member.

Another example of a successful investment in research comes from Ohio, whose Third Frontier/Issue One program was profiled on the Huffington Post. The program allots seed money to five industries identified for growth potential, including the biomedical industry. In 2009, seed money attracted $4.8 billion in private investments and created 55,000 jobs.

CDC Director's Priorities

Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discussed his priorities with New York Times reporter Gardiner Harris. Frieden said his top priorities for the agency are disease-tracking and supporting state and local health departments. "All of public health starts with more information," he said. "We have to analyze what we have better and disseminate it better."

NIH Director on Genomics

Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote an op-ed in Nature about the past and future of genomics. He wrote that the development of high-throughput technologies, with innovative public-private partnerships and the progress that has been made in genomics, will enable doctors to predict disease more accurately and find the right treatments for the right patients. In a Reuters article, Collins described his experience having his own genome decoded.

Vaccine Diplomacy

Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, professor at the George Washington University, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and a Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research Ambassador, authored an editorial in Science about the need to forge vaccine partnerships with countries afflicted by neglected tropical diseases. He wrote that the U.S. could also improve its relations with countries such as Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan by developing vaccines together.

Health Care Reform and Public Health

In The Wall Street Journal, David Cutler, PhD, professor of economics at Harvard University and a past winner of Research!America's Garfield Economic Impact Award, praised the new health care bill for including provisions on public health and prevention.

Mount Sinai in New York Times

Kenneth L. Davis, MD, president and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center, a Research!America member, and Dennis S. Charney, MD, dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and executive vice president for academic affairs at the center, published a commentary in The New York Times about the continuing need to fund research at NIH to maintain U.S. leadership in innovation.

Policy Update

Collins Testifies Before House and Senate

NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, testified before the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee on April 28 and the parallel Senate subcommittee on May 5. Collins gave similar testimony at each hearing, highlighting how patients are benefitting from NIH research advances and focusing on his five priorities for NIH that he identified at the beginning of his tenure. He also predicted that the success rate for grants could be as low as 15%, under the proposed FY 2011 budget.

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) expressed his disappointment in "the lack of aggressive activism on the part of so many professionals in the field." He also touched on a number of hot topics including the state of cancer clinical trials, newly approved embryonic stem cell lines and attracting the next generation of researchers. House L-HHS-Ed Ranking Member Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and some of his Republican colleagues focused on NIH's role in comparative effectiveness research. House Appropriations Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA) called for research to remain a nonpartisan issue.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) asked what NIH is doing to facilitate a soft landing from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding and expressed concern about being able to find additional funding for NIH. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) called the proposed $1 billion increase "disgraceful" and focused on the Cures Acceleration Network, which he has long championed. Collins testified that there is great enthusiasm for CAN, but without appropriations it cannot be implemented. Specter also said, "The scientific community is going to have to become a lot more politically active, blowing your horn. Appropriations run on politics, on the pressure. You've got a great case but it hasn't been expressed very well."

The Senate Budget Committee approved a budget resolution that cuts discretionary spending by $4 billion below the president's requested level and would freeze it for the next three years. The House remains in negotiations about whether they will try to pass a budget resolution.

Prevention in Health Reform

The Campaign for Public Health applauds the Administration, House of Representatives and Senate for including strong disease control and prevention provisions in the recently enacted health reform law. The Prevention and Public Health Fund makes substantial investments in prevention and wellness over the next several years. It makes several billion dollars available to fight preventable conditions. An initial investment of $500 million was allocated for immediate use during this federal fiscal year and must be allocated by October. CPH continues to focus its efforts on ensuring that prevention funds are used in intelligent and targeted ways.

The CPH Foundation continues working to educate the public, the media, legislators and others about the role disease control and prevention efforts play in our communities. The foundation's "Where is Public Health?" booklet now includes a one-page insert, which focuses on the role public health experts play in our national and global disease surveillance efforts. The CPH Foundation is grateful to Life Technologies Foundation for their critical support of this important fact sheet. A copy of both the booklet and the fact sheet were recently mailed to each congressional office, and more targets for the publications are pending.

Both organizations are asking partners to weigh in during their 2010 strategic planning effort. Please visit FundCDC.org or CPHFoundation.org to take part in a survey and provide feedback.

Capital Science 2010

Research!America President Mary Woolley was a panelist during the "Science Debate 08-Where are we now?" discussion at the Washington Academy of Sciences' Capital Science 2010 conference. The discussion centered on how the Obama Administration has fared in science policy and leadership. Other panelists were Albert H. Teich, PhD, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Francesca Grifo, PhD, Union of Concerned Scientists; and Jane Lubchenco, PhD, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Collins, Lander and Botstein Receive Albany Medical Center Prize

National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, has been named a recipient of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for his leading role in mapping the human genome.

Co-recipients of the award are Eric S. Lander, PhD, director of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, and David Botstein, PhD, director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University.

They were recognized during an April 23 celebration at Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY. This is the 10th year the prize, often called "America's Nobel," has been awarded.

Did You Know

Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research Ambassador and PATH President and CEO Christopher J. Elias, MD, MPH, was a panelist at a Kaiser Family Foundation forum about the Obama Administration's Global Health Initiative.

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Sharon Terry, president and chief executive officer of Genetic Alliance, a Research!America member and past Advocacy Award recipient, was inducted as an Ashoko Fellow.

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The Foundation for Biomedical Research, a Research!America member, is offering free presentations about the importance of animal research as part of its Research Saves campaign. More at www.researchsaves.org.

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The Hon. John Edward Porter, Research!America chair, spoke at a Union League Club of Chicago event presented in partnership with the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a Research!America member. "Mapping the Brain: A Path to Curing Neurological Disease," covered the Allen Human Brain Atlas and the benefits technological tools are bringing to research.

Clinical Research Forum Honors Nabel, Snyderman

The Clinical Research Forum honored two leaders in science and health at its fifth annual awards dinner.

The Clinical Research Foundation Annual Award for Leadership in Science went to Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, president of Brigham and Women's/Faulkner Hospitals and past director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The Clinical Research Foundation Annual Award for Leadership in Academic Health Centers went to Ralph Snyderman, MD, executive dean, chancellor emeritus, Duke University School of Medicine.

The Clinical Research Forum is a Research!America member.

Nominations Due for Research!America Awards

Nominate a star research advocate for the 2011 Research!America Advocacy Awards at www.researchamerica.org/2011_nominations. Nominations are due May 24.

The deadline for the 2010 Garfield Economic Impact Award nominations is June 4. Submit your nominations at www.researchamerica.org/economicimpact_award.

APTR Annual Meeting Touches on Research, Personalized Care

Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Mary Woolley, Research!America president, spoke at the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research Annual Meeting on March 26.

Clancy indicated that prevention and effective care management are essential to the success of every health care plan. She explained that investing in health IT and comparative effectiveness research will give everyone optimal personalized care.

Woolley spoke about the importance of investing in prevention research and emphasized that APTR and its members can be leaders in advocating for research funding-including prevention research-at federal research agencies. Woolley called on audience members to meet with policy makers and advocate for increased funding.

National Public Health Week Focuses on Communities

Communities across the country celebrated National Public Health Week on April 5-11. Organized by the American Public Health Association, this year's campaign theme was "A Healthier America: One Community at a Time."

APHA Executive Director and Research!America Board Member Georges C. Benjamin, MD, said, "Our ultimate goal is to make community-based prevention and achieving wellness easy to do."

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) introduced resolutions recognizing National Public Health Week and the importance of public health in preventing disease and promoting good health. Learn more at www.nphw.org.

Global Health Technologies Coalition Expo

On April 21, Research!America participated in the Global Health Technologies Coalition's first congressional exposition to highlight the need for and role of new health products for diseases affecting people around the world.

"Innovation in Action: Advancing New Tools to Combat Global Health Disease" was presented in cooperation with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus. Fourteen congressional offices sent representatives to the briefing.

Speakers included Nils Daulaire, MD, MPH, HHS; Maria Freire, PhD, Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation; Christy Hanson, PhD, MPH, USAID; and Sylvie Kwedi, MPH, Capacity for Leadership Excellence and Research.

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