Proposal to establish a National Institute of Kidney and Urologic Diseases: a report of the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Advisory Board.

Abstract

In 1990, the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Advisory Board published a long-range plan entitled "Window on the 21st Century." In that plan, the Board recommended that Congress establish a new National Institute of Kidney and Urologic Diseases (NIKUD). This recommendation stemmed from the Board's appreciation that patient morbidity and mortality from kidney and urologic diseases continue to increase and that a focused, well-funded research endeavor is the only real hope for reversing this trend. In 1992, the Board established a special subcommittee to further consider the establishment of NIKUD. The subcommittee sought input from a wide variety of extramural and intramural sources. The American Urologic Association felt that a new devoted institute would provide coordination and expansion of basic research into kidney and urologic diseases, which is presently fragmented and underfunded within multiple institutes. The research areas of kidney and urologic diseases are not currently receiving adequate or appropriate attention proportionate to their prevalence and their adverse impact on society. The American Society of Nephrology supports the establishment of a separate kidney and urology institute. First and foremost, our primary interest is to obtain more support for kidney and urologic diseases. Such research does not receive the emphasis and prominence that it deserves at the National Institutes of Health. The American Society of Nephrology believes that a separate institute would provide increased focus for these diseases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)