Contact: Colleen Henrichsen, 301-496-2563
NIH Clinical Center
Victor Nakas, 202-877-1773
National Rehabilitation Hospital
For Immediate Release
Monday, Aug. 24, 1998
NRH and NIH Clinical Center Sign Cooperative Agreement
The National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) and the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have signed an agreement to join efforts in research, training, and medical treatment of individuals with physical disabilities caused by illness and injury.
The agreement allows NRH and the NIH Clinical Center to collaborate in areas of mutual interest while sharing their expertise in different clinical problems. While NRH offers comprehensive rehabilitation for individuals with significant loss of function, it is usually the result of traditional causes, such as traumatic injury or stroke. NIH provides rehabilitation for patients who have lost function through disease, often rare neurologic conditions or cancer. This agreement will give NRH physicians a chance to work with conditions that are less common in the general population, while offering NIH researchers experience with more common functional problems.
"I am delighted that our hospital is entering into this agreement with the NIH Clinical Center because of its excellent reputation and the complementary clinical and research strengths our two organizations will provide," says Edward A. Eckenhoff, president and CEO of the National Rehabilitation Hospital.
"This alliance offers the best of both worlds," says Dr. John I. Gallin, Clinical Center director. "it will enhance care for patients at both institutions while enriching the learning environment for staff physicians in both settings."
"NRH provides comprehensive rehabilitation to individuals who experience strokes, traumatic brain injuries, musculoskeletal and spinal cord injuries, and illness," points out Eckenhoff.
The NIH Clinical Center is a medical research hospital. Patients participate in clinical studies to determine new and improved ways to treat and prevent illness. Rehabilitative services can be a part of treatment for patients whose disease results in physical debilitation.
Under the agreement, staff physicians at the Clinical Center and at the NRH will serve as preceptors for physicians in advanced training as fellows and residents. The agreement also provides an umbrella for encouraging and expanding cooperative efforts in clinical research, referral of patients, and consultation in patient care.
Opened in 1986, the National Rehabilitation Hospital is a private, not-for-profit facility named five times to the "Best Hospital" list compiled annually by US News and World Report. The hospital is part of The NRH Medical Rehabilitation Network providing inpatient, outpatient, day treatment, transition, and home-care services in Northwest Washington, D. C., and suburban Maryland.
The Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center is part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. NIH is the federal government's medical research agency. The Clinical Center supports about 1,000 clinical investigations on a wide range of diseases including AIDS, cancer, heart disease, neurologic disorders, diabetes, arthritis, and mental health, and involves patients from across the country. Construction of an expanded facility, the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, is expected to be complete in 2002.
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NOTE: The following are available for interviews to comment on the NRH-NIH Clinical Center agreement:
--Gerben DeJong, PhD, Director, NRH Research Center, 202-466-1900
--John Gallin, MD, Director, NIH Clinical Center, 301-496-2563