Dear Research Advocate: On Tuesday, President Trump officially sent his rescissions package to Congress, impounding $15.4 billion in discretionary and mandatory spending authority and requesting that Congress rescind (cancel) it. While uncertainty still reigns, it appears that both Houses will, in fact, go through the process of formally reviewing the rescissions package. Members of Congress have a 45-day window to act; if they don’t, it’s back to business as usual. Here is a quick primer the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget put together on the rescissions process. Among the discretionary and mandatory funding cuts included in the package: $400 million in Ebola funding and $800...

Twenty-two percent of all U.S. injuries in the most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs). If you or a family member were impacted, were you aware of the potential consequences of those injuries? The most common comorbid condition with a TBI is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Of soldiers with TBI, more than 40% have also been diagnosed with PTSD. The problem is that PTSD cannot be seen, and so we wait on individuals to report symptoms, but by then it’s often too late! According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, as many as 22 veterans committed suicide per day in 2013. What if a blood test could tell you who is at risk? My research...

Ella Murray is a happy, inquisitive elementary school student. However, because she was born without collagen factor VII, she suffers from a disease called epidermolysis bullosa (EB). This causes her to develop blisters all over her body, and she has to endure 3 hours of bandage changes multiple times a week. There are currently no therapies for EB, in part due to low prevalence of the disease and low enrollment in clinical trials. Joe Murray, Ella’s dad, told her story and called on researchers to inform communities about existing clinical trials during the Coalition for Clinical Trials Awareness panel discussion on child inclusion in clinical trials held in Washington, D.C. on May 1. This...

2017 was a historic year for disasters in quantity, magnitude and destruction. They shattered prior cost records, left hundreds, possibly thousands, dead and pushed thousands more into already strained health systems with new and chronic injuries and illnesses. Early predictions are already calling for an above average hurricane season in 2018. Now is the time to take a new approach in examining what happened during these disasters so we can be better prepared to help survivors of future disasters. I am a clinician-scientist who studies the health effects of disasters. For example, one of my recent studies showed that hospitalizations for older adults increase well beyond the initial impact...