Research!America

Congress to Work on Continuing Resolution
Urge Your Elected Officials to Support Health Research

As soon as Congress returns from recess in early September, they are expected to work on a Continuing Resolution (CR). Take this opportunity to reach out to your elected officials urging them to support increased health research funding in the CR.

As in past years, Congress is not expected to finish appropriations before the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Now, they must pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the government running into FY09. Ask your elected officials to do all they can to increase funds for research to improve health in the CR. Take action now!

AARP, a frequent Research!America partner, has released new research that defines “swing voters” in six states key to the election this fall. The research also identifies the specific policy options that motivate them. From the press release:

The research identifies who undecided, swing voters are — white, lower-to-middle income, older women — in six key states: Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Swing voters in the six key states are focused domestically on the economy and health care, but three-fourths (72%) believe the candidates are doing a poor or fair job of addressing these key issues.

Download the research report.

Jeff Mullin writes commentary in this Oklahoma daily and mentions a 2006 Research!America public opinion poll on aging and longevity.

Memory is a hot topic these days.

With the graying of America, more and more attention is being paid to aging and its relationship with mental acuity.

Americans are more than twice as likely to fear losing their mental capacity than their physical capacity as they age, according to a 2006 poll by Research!America, a nonprofit public education and advocacy alliance.

As a result, science is spending a great deal of time and money studying the human brain’s capacity to store and retrieve information.

Continue reading.

Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers, often called CDC’s “disease detectives,” have gone on to occupy leadership positions at CDC and other public health agencies nationally and internationally. The experience also is useful for health professionals who want to gain a population health perspective.

Apply for the 2-year, postgraduate program of service and on-the-job training for health professionals interested in the practice of epidemiology at www.cdc.gov/eis/applyeis/toapply.htm.

An article on Forbes.com, Surprising Things That Affect Memory, by Allison Van Dusen, mentions a 2006 Research!America public opinion poll to jump start this check list of items that impact memory.

Maintaining mental acuity is a major concern for aging Americans–they want to make the most of their golden years rather than have to struggle through them. In fact, adults are more than twice as likely to fear losing their mental capacity as their physical capacity, according to a 2006 poll by Research!America, a nonprofit public education and advocacy alliance.

Continue reading.

The Association of Schools of Public Health, a Research!America member and a partner in Your Candidates-Your Health, publicized the voter education initiative in its popular Friday Letter:

Senator John McCain recently submitted his responses to the Your Candidates-Your Health 2008 web site, an initiative of Research!America. He joins Senator Barack Obama, who completed the questionnaire earlier. All 2008 candidates for president were invited to let voters know where they stand on health and research by filling out a brief questionnaire. To view the web site and compare the candidates’ stances in important health and research issues, visit www.yourcandidatesyourhealth.org/presidential.php.

Research!America encourages voters to also thank both candidates for participating in this important voter education initiative and to encourage their congressional candidates to declare their views on issues such as health care, research funding and competitiveness.

The Lymphatic Research Foundation, a Research!America member, is featured today as CHARITY OF THE DAY by www.GoodSearch.com. From Mary Anne McCarrick at LRF:

GoodSearch.com donates half its revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use GoodSearch.com just as you would any search engine. It’s powered by Yahoo! so you get good results. GoodShop.com is a related online shopping mall through which a percentage of each purchase is donated to your favorite cause.

It’s simple to turn your internet searches and online shopping into research dollars for LRF. Go to www.GoodShop.com and enter Lymphatic Research Foundation as the charity you want to support and start shopping.

Congratulations to LRF! If you’re a Research!America member who would like to be featured in our blog, be sure to e-mail editor@researchamerica.org.

Research!America’s leadership submitted a statement about the importance of research to the Democratic and Republican Partys’ Platform Drafting Committees last week. Take action NOW by sending the parties the same or a similar message. Also, use these statements in your interactions with congressional members and candidates.

The research statement is built upon the premise that investing in research will make Americans healthier, improve health care, strengthen our economy, allow America to lead, protect our future and improve health globally. Read the letters to the Democratic and Republican Platform Drafting Committees (PDFs) and send your own message to each party. The Democratic Party will begin drafting their platform this weekend, so contact them immediately. The Republican Party will be meeting during the last week in August. Contact information for the chairs of both committees is available on our Web site.

On a recent plane trip, a Research!America staffer sat beside a sales director for Mary Kay Cosmetics. It turns out that THE Mary Kay set up a philanthropic arm in honor of her daughter. At this point, the foundation focuses on cancer in women and domestic violence.

More at The Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation: A Legacy of Love.

Applauds Renewed Support for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria

Research!America has signed onto the Global Health Technologies Coalition’s letter praising the passing of the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.

This important legislation to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a significant step in addressing the global health challenges of HIV, TB and malaria. The new law not only expands access to existing lifesaving prevention, treatment and care services helping those most at need, it also expands support for the research and development of health technologies such as new drugs, vaccines and microbicides.

Read more.

The New York Times reports the top causes of illness and death in America today are heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, in that order. Dartmouth College health economist Jonathan Skinner, PhD, says that together they account for 25% of the nation’s healthcare expenditures.

If it wasn’t clear already, it should be now—the United States MUST put its weight behind research to improve health in concrete way. Progress on curing and treating nearly all of those conditions could be improved by providing more backing for medical research. If we invest in research now, it’s likely that the cost of treating those diseases will eventually decrease, as well as the damage they inflict. It’s no coincidence that the conditions that kill the most also cost the most.

–Mike Leon

Research!America emeritus director Cass Wheeler is stepping down as head of the American Heart Association, and the Wall Street Journal Health blog interviews him about his legacy and the organization’s goals:

he asked the organization for a “breakthrough goal” when he took office in 1997. He got one: reduce death from heart disease and stroke by 25% by 2010. Soon enough, he says, the AHA “synched up” with the CDC’s Healthy People 2010 campaign. The target helped energize and focus the organization, he says.

Earlier this year, two years ahead of schedule, the AHA announced that the age-adjusted death rate from heart disease fell 30.7% from 1999, according to CDC data from 2006.

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, a Research!America member, has selected Bill and Melinda Gates as recipients of the 2009 Howard K. Schachman Public Service Award, the society’s highest nonscientific honor.

Past recipients of this award include U.S. Representative Michael N. Castle (2008); Research!America (2007); the Honorable Sherwood Boehlert (2006), U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter (2005); philanthropist and biomedical research advocate John Whitehead (2004); former NIH Director Ruth L. Kirschstein (2003); and the Honorable John Edward Porter [Research!America chair] (2002).

James E.K. Hildreth, PhD, MD, director of the Comprehensive Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV and professor of internal medicine at Meharry Medical College, was featured in The Tennessean last week. Dr. Hildreth’s work developing a cream that may block the transmission of HIV during sex is explored in this article by Colby Sledge.

The cream could give hope to millions of women in Africa who have no way of protecting themselves from HIV transmission, as well as black women in the United States who are disproportionately affected by the disease.

It’s hard to beat the example of how research can be translated into a healthier population than that of Julius B. Richmond, who died a few days ago at the age of 91.

His most important official title was surgeon general in the Carter Administration, but some of his most important work had already been done by then. And there was more to come after his tenure in office.
Based on his research as a pediatrician, Project Head Start was developed with him as its first director. Since then, 20 million children benefited, many of them in productive positions as adults today.

Dr. Richmond was an early proponent of evidence-based medicine and benchmarking in public health, which is now the norm in policy making.

And in the 1980s and ‘90s, Richmond lent his expertise and prestige to the anti-smoking fight, one of the most productive public health campaigns in recent American history, responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives a year.

For a fuller biography, see the Boston Globe.

The election season is heating up, and November 4 is only a few months away. Take action and promote Your Candidates-Your Health as a critical educational tool to your colleagues, members and partners. By promoting Your Candidates-Your Health 2008 as a highly valuable source of information for voters, more candidates will make their positions known on health, research and science. Voters can then use this information when they head to the polls in November.

Please use the Your Candidates-Your Health 2008 logo on your Web site or in other electronic media and link back to www.yourcandidatesyourhealth.org. Contact us for sample text to use in your advocacy alerts, on your Web site or in newsletter articles. In addition, a brief summary featuring quotes and logos from our partners is available on our Web site. If you have any questions or would like more information, please leave a comment or e-mail advocacy@researchamerica.org.

The Wall Street Journal conjures a daydream many of us have had: What would you do with $10 billion? First, though, you have to have it, but of more importance for this thought-exercise, the money has to be spent on a public good.

Since this question appears on the newspaper’s editorial pages, the premise is that whatever you spend the billions on must return even more in benefit than the cost.

Global warming? Clean air? Ending hunger? Ridding the world of terrorists?

Nope. The best investment of that Bill Gates-like change is in preventing disease. Simply attacking heart disease in the developing world would, according to experts, return $25 for every dollar spent.
We knew that, of course, but maybe it’s time the folks who will be elected to Congress and the White House this fall will readjust current priorities from weapons and airport security toward something that will save more lives and increase world economic security.

The Fogarty International Center, the global arm of the National Institutes of Health, launched a $1.5 million-a-year grant program to fund domestic and overseas training of researchers to fight chronic diseases in developing nations.

The program is intended to build research capacity in cancer, stroke, lung disease, environmental factors, obesity, lifestyle and the relationship of all these conditions to the genetics of chronic diseases in countries often thought of only in terms of infectious diseases.

“Millennium Promise Awards: Non-communicable Chronic Diseases Research Training Program” is part of Fogarty’s new strategic plan announced last month. Up to seven awards and two planning grants are available under the program.

More information at www.fic.nih.gov/programs/training_grants/ncod/index.htm.

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for President, recently submitted his responses to Your Candidates-Your Health 2008. He joins Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, who completed the questionnaire earlier. Visit the Web site to view and compare your candidates’ stances on important issues of health and research. Please also thank both candidates for participating in this important voter education initiative.

While you are on the site, encourage your congressional candidates to declare their views on issues such as health care, research funding, and competitiveness. Take action now to make research to improve health a higher priority in the upcoming election!

Urge Your Senators to Support NIH Research

Champions of health research on Capitol Hill are working hard to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Last week, Senator Arlen Specter (PA), Ranking Member of the Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee, introduced a bill to add $5.2 billion to the NIH budget this year. By another legislative strategy, Senator Tom Harkin (IA), as Chair of the Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee, will recommend $500 million for NIH in a new supplemental appropriations bill on domestic spending. Contact your Senators immediately and urge them to support NIH research as they consider supplemental appropriations this week.

Thank you to all the advocates who voiced their support for the first supplemental bill, which included $150 million for NIH and was signed into law on June 30. Show your support for health research by calling on your Senators to approve Senator Harkin’s recommendations for NIH funding in the second supplemental appropriations bill. Take action NOW!