Week 4: The National Institutes of Health; the organization
Show of hands: how many of you knew about the NIH before you started reading this blog?
Oh good, I’d hoped you would.
The NIH is comprised of 27 institutes and centers (ICs), the largest of which is the National Cancer Institute (NCI). There are campuses in Maryland, North Carolina, Montana, Michigan, and Massachusetts. Annually, the entire NIH budget consists of nearly $32 billion, 85% of which is distributed to extramural research (i.e., grants to universities to conduct research); the remaining budget is circulated to all intramural facilities on NIH campuses. I am working in the Clinical Center (CC or NIHCC), which is the largest center on the main Bethesda, MD campus. All patients in the clinical center are enrolled in a clinical trial of some kind (hence the center’s name), with no general patient enrollment. This allows the NIHCC to maintain a clinical and research oriented approach to patient care. The NIH staff is comprised of roughly 1,100 tenured researchers and senior PIs (primary investigators), 1,200 staff scientists (300 of whom are clinicians), 3,200 postdocs, 400 graduate students who are enrolled in universities and completing NIH research, 60 med students, 1,100 postbacs, and 1,200 summer interns (the most in NIH history). The research being conducted by all of these researchers is focused on rare diseases, advanced cancers, natural history studies, end of the line treatments, truly making the CC the House of Hope for many of the patients that come through the door.
(Everything I’ve covered so far in this post has come from assorted training and lectures that I have attended so far. The remainder I am pulling from the following website, if you’re interested in learning more about NIHCC’s long and successful history: http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/welcome/history.shtml)
The ground breaking for the construction of the Clinical Center took place in November of 1948, and the first patient was admitted 5 years later, July 6, 1953. In 1963, a surgical wing was constructed for cardiac and neurosurgery, and the ambulatory care research facility was started in 1977. The ’80s were a big time for the neuroscience research field at NIH, with NIA (National Institute of Aging) opening their first Neuroscience Lab in September of 1982, and the first MRI unit running patients in 1984. As time progressed, the speed of growth at NIH expanded tremendously. In September of 1990, our first patient received gene therapy as a means of treatment, and in 1992 and lab was constructed and dedicated to AIDs research. In 1996, NIHCC clinical research studies were released to the general public, to spread wealth of knowledge and advancement of medicine (http://clinicalstudies.info.nih.gov/). 2004 marked the 50th anniversary of the NIHCC, and much focused turned to improving already established patient care. In June of 2005 the Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge opened with 34 guest rooms for families of patients in clinical trials. By 2007, patients were enrolling in the human genome sequencing study and the NIH opened a state-of-the-art metabolic clinical research unit, then in 2008 the Undiagnosed Diseases Program launched. Also in 2008, the “Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Clinical Research” course began in Beijing, China, to bring global medicine advancement to the worldwide stage. Since then, medical advancements continue to be made annually.
Although it’s not all miracle medical advancements (you may have heard recently of the research findings that there are growing instances of preventable infections spread to patients due to insufficient hand hygiene in NIH facilities) but overall, its an inspiring history.
As the weeks progress on, I continue my work with data cleaning and learning new procedures. This week I had to opportunity to shadow when patients were enrolling in the study, and witnessed one of our researchers diagnosis a patient with a personality disorder. This morning, I learned how to code in a new image processing program to analyze brain volume. It’s been another long week of learning, and I’m excited for the long holiday weekend. Happy almost 4th!
Until next time!
