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Summaries of Meetings
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National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council's September Meeting |
Dr. Nabel welcomed Council members and recognized five members who are retiring: Drs. Gordon Bernard, Kim Eagle, Frances Henderson, Ngai Nguyen, and Maria Costanzo.
Dr. Nabel introduced Dr. Alan Michelson, the Institute's new Associate Director for Basic Research. He comes to the NIH from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Division of Genetics in the Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women�fs Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Michelson will have responsibility for NHLBI basic science policies, development and integration of basic sciences initiatives within the NHLBI, and coordination of these policies and programs with other NIH institutes and federal agencies.
Dr. Nabel highlighted an NIH Request for Information that seeks public input (by October 31) on a proposed new NIH policy designed to facilitate the research community's access to data resulting from NIH-funded genome-wide association studies.
Dr. Nabel explained the recent decline in success rates of NIH grant applications, noting that the number of applications has increased each year since the end of the NIH budget doubling, while the NIH budget has remained almost flat. The FY 2007 President�fs Budget proposed for the NHLBI is almost $30 million less than the FY 2006 appropriation. However, the Institute expects to be able to support an increased number of competing research project grants in FY 2007 because fewer noncompeting research project grant awards are anticipated. The Institute expects to close FY 2006 with an R01 percentile payline of 14.0.
Dr. Nabel provided an update on the Strategic Plan. She also noted that the NHLBI has a new logo.
The NHLBI has undergone some reorganization. The Institute has a new Division of Extramural Research Activities (DERA) directed by Dr. Stephen Mockrin. In addition to supporting grants management and review, DERA will have a new Office of Staff Training and Communication and a new Office of Strategic and Innovative Programs.
At the request of the NHLBI, a panel of eminent researchers reviewed the organization of the Institute's extramural cardiovascular program. In response, the Institute reorganized its cardiovascular program into two new Divisions: the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases (DCVD) - with five disease-oriented branches; and the Division of Prevention and Population Sciences (DPPS) - with two branches. The new Acting Directors of DCVD and DPPS are Drs. Sonia Skarlatos and Peter Savage, respectively.
Dr. Keith Horvath, Director of the NHLBI intramural Cardiothoracic Surgery Research Program, which works closely with Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, discussed his lab's current research interests, and described the facilities and capabilities of the NIH Heart Center at Suburban Hospital.
NHLBI Deputy Director, Dr. Susan Shurin, discussed tracking of clinical trials. She explained that the Institute routinely monitors patient accrual for its clinical studies, reviews the composition of its clinical study populations, and monitors all clinical studies annually. In addition, the Institute is working with the grantee community to help them enhance the accuracy of their enrollment projections, develop mechanisms to aid recruitment, and enhance self-regulation by use of rewards for doing well and consequences for not meeting targets.
Dr. Christopher O'Donnell, Senior Advisor to the Director for Genome Research and Associate Director of the Framingham Heart Study, discussed genome-wide association studies. The Framingham SNP-Health Association Resource (SHARe) will enable studies of connections between genetic variation and common diseases by providing access to genotype information and phenotype data collected from participants of the Framingham Heart Study.
Dr. Charles Friedman, Director of the NHLBI's new Center for Research Informatics and Information Technology (CRIIT), presented the informatics and information technology (IT) goals of the Institute and the plan for reaching them. The long-term goal is to create and maintain an integrated information and knowledge environment for the diverse NHLBI community.
Full minutes of Council meetings and summaries of the initiatives are available.
PIO representatives will be accommodated on a space-available basis and will be responsible for their own travel expenses.
Location: To be determined
Date: March 2007
Contact: Dr. Robert Smith
Location: To be determined
Date: June 2007
Contact: Dr. Antonello Punturieri
Location: To be determined
Date: June 2007
Contact: Dr. Herbert Reynolds
Date: January 12-14
Location: Bahia Mar Beach, FL
Date: February 7-9
Location: San Francisco, CA
Date: February 14
Location: Bethesda, MD
Date: March 17-19
Location: New York, NY
Date: April 18-20
Location: Florence, Italy
Date: April 20-22
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Date: April 25-28
Location: Capri, Italy
Date: April 30 - May 2
Location: Washington, DC