NIH Signals Intent to Boost Funding of Emergency Care Research and Training

Abstract

EMERGENCY CARE RESEARCH SHOULD be getting a financial and prestige boost, thanks to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The federal agency, which provides about $30 billion annually in medical research, announced July 31 it was forming the Office of Emergency Care Research (OECR). Although the office will not directly fund research projects, it is intended to serve as the focal point for basic, clinical, and translational emergency care research and training across the NIH. The need for such an office arose because the NIH comprises 27 institutes and centers, each with a specific research agenda, often focusing on a particular disease or organ system. Emergency care, however, is not tied to a specific disease or organ system. ArthurKellermann,MD,MPH,asenior researcherwith theRandCorporation in Santa Monica, Calif, defined emergency care research as that which “focuses on the discovery and application of timecriticaldiagnostics,decisionmaking,and treatments that save lives, prevent or reducedisability,andrestorehumanhealth” (Kellermann AL. Ann Emerg Med. 2010; 56[5]:568-570). Kellermann, who has workedwith theNIHfor several years to bring more attention to emergency care research,calledtheformationoftheOECR ahistoricdevelopmentthatwillhelpcountertheprevailingenvironmentattheNIH. “The NIH takes an organ-based approach to funding research, so if you’re proposing a study that cuts across institutes, it is very hard to find a home for that,” Kellermann said. “If you had an emergency care research proposal to be reviewed,youwouldhear, ‘That’snotfrom myspecialtyordiscipline, sowhywould we support that here?’”