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Research!America is dedicated to ensuring a strong public and private sector investment in research to improve health at a level warranted by scientific opportunity and supported by public opinion. Member organizations and others share their perspectives on a wide variety of topics relating to public and private sector research and innovation, and public health. The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of Research!America.

Recent Blog Posts

Antibiotic Resistance: A Global Threat to Public Health

By Laura Rogers on October 15, 2018

This is the first installment in a blog series about awareness of antibacterial resistance that will lead to World Antibiotic Awareness Week, November 12-18, 2018. Check back for more blog posts throughout the coming weeks! When antibiotics were introduced as a medicine in the 1940s , they changed the face of medicine. The drugs quickly became the cornerstone of modern medicine. In a pre-antibiotic world, even a simple cut to the knee could kill if it became infected, as we had no reliable tools to kill bacteria. Antibiotics allowed thousands of soldiers from World War II to come home because their infections from the battlefield could be treated. By contrast, during World War I, one out of...

Knights Landing Environmental Health Project: Two Years of Responsive Community Health

By Skye Kelty and Alfonso Aranda on October 12, 2018

Knights Landing (KL) is an unincorporated agricultural town located 25 miles north of the University of Calfornia, Davis (UC Davis). Like many unincorporated agricultural communities in the California Central Valley, KL faces a number of challenges including transportation, access to medical care, access to healthy foods and water, immigration, poverty, housing shortages and environmental pollution. About three years ago, KL residents reported concerns about a high cancer risk in their community to UC Davis Chicana/o Studies professor, Natalia Deeb-Sossa, PhD. As a result, Dr. Deeb-Sossa recruited PhD students to address community needs through their research in cancer prevention and...

A Weekly Advocacy Message from Mary Woolley: Election Countdown Begins

By Mary Woolley on October 11, 2018

Dear Research Advocate: Earlier today, Rob Smith and Kim Monk of Capital Alpha Partners, and Pete Kirkham of Red Maple Consulting joined Research!America alliance members to discuss the near and mid-term outlook for congressional action on drug pricing, the state of play on appropriations, and other research-relevant issues. Although our speakers noted that much can change in the final week before the election, there were several key takeaways. First, it’s safe to say that the uncertainties surrounding the election and the ongoing interest (both in Congress and the White House) in addressing rising healthcare costs means that drug pricing and issues related to the supply chain more...

October 2018: The Research Advocate

By on October 5, 2018

The October 2018 newsletter is now online. Highlights from this month include : Research!America announced that The Honorable Louis W. Sullivan , former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, would be among the honorees at the 2019 Advocacy Awards, to be held in Washington, D.C. on March 13, 2019. Other honorees include Dr. Susan Hockfield, President Emerita of the Massachusettes Institute of Technology; Dr. David R. Williams , of the Harvard H.T. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard University; Denny Sanford , founder of the Sanford Research Institute; and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation . Georges C. Benjamin, MD , executive director of the American Public Health...

A weekly advocacy message from Mary Woolley: Bipartisanship matters

By Mary Woolley on October 4, 2018

Dear Research Advocate, Yesterday, the Senate passed a sweeping opioid package ( H.R. 6 ), previously passed by the House, and sent it to the President for his signature. It includes intensified research into new pain management therapies that factor importantly into a broad array of opioid response strategies. This can’t come too soon: according to a recent study from AHRQ, there were nearly 125,000 opioid-related hospitalizations among older Americans in 2015; more Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016 than the number of American lives lost -- 58,200 -- in the entirety of the Vietnam War. The opioid legislation is an excellent example of much needed bipartisanship; the FY19 Labor-H/...

Accelerating Innovation in Rare Disease Treatments: The Need for Collaboration

By Srini Ramanathan, PhD on October 1, 2018

Thirty million people in the United States are living with a rare disease and less than five percent of existing rare diseases have an approved treatment option . At Horizon Pharma, we are driven by a personal commitment to our patients to collaborate and innovate to close the innovation gap in rare disease. Conversations such as Research!America’s National Health Research Forum, which discussed the challenge of unmet medical needs , are vital in highlighting areas where cross-sector collaboration will enable us to find treatment options faster. Sitting alongside my fellow panelists, it was clear that while the challenges of unmet needs persist, our shared commitment will drive forward new...

A Weekly Advocacy Message From Mary Woolley: Major kudos and prestigious awards

By Mary Woolley on September 27, 2018

Dear Research Advocate: I am especially pleased to report that the House passed the Labor-H/Defense FY19 appropriations conference report yesterday, by a vote of 361-61. The President has said he will sign the bill, thus avoiding a partial government shutdown with its myriad negative consequences (including the toll on medical and public health progress). Please do as we have and say thank you to Congressional leadership for passing this bill in timely fashion, with funding that supports putting research to work to find the solutions to what ails us. Of particular note, the bill includes a $2 billion increase for NIH, as well as increases for other federal health agencies under HHS auspices...

A Weekly Advocacy Message From Mary Woolley: Inspiration and reasons for hope

By Mary Woolley on September 20, 2018

Dear Research Advocate: Earlier this week, I visited both campuses (Davis and Sacramento) of the University of California, Davis. Uniquely, the campuses include a medical school, veterinary school including a primate center, school of engineering, nursing school and graduate and undergraduate science programs, all highly ranked. Campus leaders are justly proud of the collaborative programs they have fielded. It was especially rewarding to talk to early career scientists, fired with enthusiasm and determination to find the solutions to what ails us, and ready, willing and able to advocate. They inspired me! My time at UC Davis brought to mind “New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine...

Healthy Aging Month: How we can all live better longer

By Eric Verdin, MD on September 19, 2018

September is Healthy Aging Month, and here at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging , we are on a mission to end the threat of age-related disease for this and future generations. We believe it is possible for people to enjoy healthy lives at age 95 as much as they do at 25, and to achieve that, we’re seeking a more comprehensive understanding of the biology of aging itself. Over the last century, average human lifespan has been increasing at a rate of approximately 2 years per decade, primarily due to advancements in antibiotics and other medical treatments, as well as improved public health efforts. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2035, people over the age of 65 will outnumber...

A Weekly Advocacy Message From Mary Woolley: Optimism in the air

By Mary Woolley on September 13, 2018

Dear Research Advocate: Big news: it appears a Labor-H/Defense appropriations “conference report” (i.e. final bill) will clear Congress and reach the President’s desk before the September 30 deadline. Earlier this week, we sent a letter urging conferees Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Representative Tom Cole (R-OK), and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) to push for the highest funding levels possible for NIH, CDC, AHRQ and CDMRP given the boundaries set by the House and Senate versions of the legislation. This just in: a summary of the conference report . A preliminary read (emphasis on “preliminary”) indicates that the conferees did indeed opt for favorable funding...

Blog

Recent Blog Posts

Antibiotic Resistance: A Global Threat to Public Health

Knights Landing Environmental Health Project: Two Years of Responsive Community Health

A Weekly Advocacy Message from Mary Woolley: Election Countdown Begins

October 2018: The Research Advocate

A weekly advocacy message from Mary Woolley: Bipartisanship matters

Accelerating Innovation in Rare Disease Treatments: The Need for Collaboration

A Weekly Advocacy Message From Mary Woolley: Major kudos and prestigious awards

A Weekly Advocacy Message From Mary Woolley: Inspiration and reasons for hope

Healthy Aging Month: How we can all live better longer

A Weekly Advocacy Message From Mary Woolley: Optimism in the air

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