Five Themes for the NIH

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Our new NIH Director, Dr. Francis S. Collins, took the helm on Monday, August 17. A bold leader with bold ideas, Dr. Collins combines deep knowledge of NIH with broad, thoughtful perspective on the biomedical research enterprise.

During his first day on the job, Dr. Collins addressed NIH staff, outlining five key themes for the agency — five themes tied together by the value they gain from extramural research. These themes include:

  1. Taking advantage of advances in high-throughput technologies to understand the fundamentals of biology and how specific diseases are activated
  2. Emphasizing the translation of research into medicine
  3. Putting science to work for the benefit of health care reform through comparative effectiveness research, behavioral science, health information technology, health research economics, and further research on health disparities
  4. Placing a greater focus on global health
  5. And empowering the biomedical research community by considering future budgets, training, peer review, and workforce diversity.

Now as much as ever, you the extramural research community shape the American public health landscape. We are excited to support you as we support Dr. Collins and his goals for sustaining extramural research of the highest caliber.