The Support of Clinical Research and Training by the National Institutes of Health

Abstract

Anyone who has attempted a metabolic study on Long Ward can appreciate the sense of eager anticipation among the faculty of the Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) that greeted the announcement of the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) program by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1959. I had been acquainted with the metabolism unit under Jerry Conn at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), the Mallinkrodt Ward 4 at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston), and the inpatient beds at the Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md, and knew how essential a controlled environment was to accurate clinical research. Frank Engel was chairman of the planning committee, which in time also became the search committee that recommended the appointment of Jim Sidbury as the first director of the Duke GCRC. That Duke was selected as one of the initial institutions to receive NIH funding for a GCRC was a