Statement by Research!America president and CEO Mary Woolley on the New Chair of the House Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee
November 20, 2014
Congressman Tom Cole’s leadership on the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee will help shape our ability to sustain and accelerate medical innovation as we confront health crises here and abroad. As a steward of the federal funding that lays the noncommercial foundation for private sector medical progress, Congressman Cole will play a pivotal role in determining whether our nation conquers Alzheimer’s, childhood cancer, Ebola and other insidious health threats. We commend his efforts to ensure quality health care for veterans, remove barriers to innovation through the repeal of the medical device tax and advance other health and research-related initiatives. We look forward to working with the congressman to strengthen our nation’s research infrastructure for the millions of patients awaiting new therapies and cures.
How To Help Accelerate Medical Progress In America
Excerpt of an article published in the Imperial Valley News.
Each year in the United States, nearly 16,000 kids are diagnosed with cancer. And on any given day, as many as 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. Beyond its debilitating symptoms, the death rate for Alzheimer’s is on the rise.
But there are steps you can take to protect your family from these potentially devastating medical conditions.
One idea that may come as a surprise to many Americans is to contact your congressional representatives and the candidates for their seats.
That’s the suggestion of a national, nonpartisan, voter education initiative called “Ask Your Candidates!” designed to empower voters to talk to candidates about the future of medical progress in the United States. Congress plays a key role in influencing the future of lifesaving research. Many voters are asking candidates if, once elected, they will vote to increase federal funding for medical research and support policies that spur innovation.
The initiative helps voters engage candidates on social media and through local events, grassroots, advertising and other interactive projects.
Read the full article here.
Statement by Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley on the Accelerate Biomedical Research Act
Research!America applauds Senator Tom Harkin for taking bold, decisive action to heal fissures in our nation’s research pipeline with legislation that will strengthen the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget over the next six years. The Accelerate Biomedical Research Act will establish a pathway for sustained growth in the NIH budget. That budget has remained virtually stagnant over the last decade, jeopardizing promising research to combat disease and deflating the aspirations of early career scientists. NIH-funded research fuels the development of lifesaving therapies and treatments, and creates opportunities for public-private partnerships to better understand Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and other major health threats here and abroad.
Senator Harkin and other congressional leaders recognize the potential of innovative research, but it is Senator Harkin who is taking the lead at a time when too many elected officials appear to have taken their eyes off the ball with our global leadership in science and technology at risk. China and other countries are aggressively increasing their research and development investments, luring scientists to their shores and challenging our dominance in medical research and innovation. According to polling commissioned by Research!America, a majority of Americans are skeptical that the U.S. will maintain its pre-eminence in science by the year 2020, and many policy experts agree. We urge Congress to support the Accelerate Biomedical Research Act to improve the health of Americans and ensure our global competitiveness.
Statement by Research!America president and CEO Mary Woolley on Omnibus Bill
We applaud portions of the omnibus bill that support the nation’s research, innovation and public health ecosystem, which works to assure our future health and economic well-being. The growth in funding for the Food and Drug Administration, fueled in part by the common-sense return of the 2013 user fees, as well as the increases for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Science Foundation are welcome news.
But funding for the National Institutes of Health has been kept well below the level of scientific opportunity. We must eliminate sequestration once and for all, and grow our investment in NIH in order to slow and halt the progression of diseases and disabilities ranging from Alzheimer’s to diabetes to traumatic brain injury. The appropriators have worked in good faith to move the nation forward. But as long as Congress avoids the primary issues fueling our national debt – tax and entitlement reform – it will be difficult to invest robustly in solutions to our problems.
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A do-nothing Congress isn’t healthy
Op-ed by The Honorable John Edward Porter, Research!America Chair and former U.S. Representative (1980 – 2001) published in CNN.
At every congressional recess, the question remains: What has Congress accomplished to advance medical innovation, or for that matter any of our national priorities?
A ritual of leaving town with no meaningful action on pressing issues seems to have taken hold as lawmakers once again meet with voters in their districts. Indeed, much will happen during this break, but as elected officials hold yet another town hall meeting, Facebook or Twitter chat or public event, thousands will be diagnosed with cancer or get the dreaded confirmation from a physician that they or a loved one has Alzheimer’s disease. Thousands will suffer a heart attack or stroke, and thousands of parents will learn that their child has a rare disease.
Researchers are racing against the clock to identify a new gene or molecule that could lead to the next medical breakthrough and bring us closer to cures and new therapies to halt disease.
Time is of the essence in the scientific community, but unfortunately, our elected leaders continue to squander precious time in political, ideological battles that yield little or no results. Is this the Congress you elected? This is not the first elected body to tackle formidable challenges, but it may be the first that has failed miserably in addressing critical issues that will have short- and long-term implications for the health and well-being of Americans.
Spending bills to fund the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and other agencies in the next fiscal year remain in limbo as sequestration, across-the-board spending cuts enacted in March, tightens its grip on medical innovation. As a result of these mindless budget cuts, researchers are delaying or scrubbing promising studies. Institutions across the country have closed labs, reduced their work forces and implemented hiring freezes. Young scientists are rethinking their career paths or moving abroad to countries that have accelerated investments in research. Continue reading →
New National Public Opinion Poll Shows Majority of Americans Would Participate in Clinical Trials if Recommended by Their Doctor
Only Small Percentage say Health Care Professionals Have Ever Talked to Them about Medical Research
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-June 12, 2013 – More than two-thirds (72%) of Americans say it’s likely they would participate in a clinical trial if recommended by their doctor, but only 22% say a doctor or other health care professional has ever talked to them about medical research, according to a new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America. A wide majority (80%) say they have heard of a clinical trial – more than half (53%) through the Internet and only 24% from a doctor or other health care provider.
Only 16% of those polled say they or someone in their family have ever participated in clinical trials. Respondents believe individuals don’t participate because of a lack of awareness (53%), a lack of trust (53%), concerns that it’s too risky (51%), adverse health outcomes (44%), little or no monetary compensation (35%), privacy concerns (27%), and worries that it takes too much time (27%).
The findings point to the important role of health care providers in talking to their patients about clinical trials. “It is critical for providers and health systems in the U.S. to recognize the importance of generating knowledge about which treatments are best through participation in clinical trials,” said Robert Califf, MD, vice chancellor of clinical and translational research at Duke University Medical Center and board chair of the Clinical Research Forum, a co-sponsor of the poll. “Advances in common diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes, as well as rare diseases, depend on physicians and other members of the health care team offering their patients a chance to participate in clinical trials.” Continue reading →
Alzheimer Research Cuts Show Folly of Sequestration
This post is an excerpt of a Bloomberg column by Albert R. Hunt on how sequestration hurts medical research, especially in the fight to better understand—and hopefully cure— Alzheimer’s disease.
Albert R. Hunt
Many Republicans, and Democrats, never thought the automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration would take effect. After all, they might produce dangerous, if unintended, consequences such as potentially bankrupting the U.S. health-care system, along with millions of families.
Typical Washington hyperbole, right? It actually is happening under sequestration, which kicked in three months ago, a product of America’s political dysfunction.
Because the cuts only affect the margins of a wide array of defense and domestic discretionary programs, there mostly hasn’t been an immediate pinch; the public backlash has been minimal. The long-term consequences, in more than a few cases, are ominous. Continue reading →
Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer’s Initiative Offers Prize for Innovation
The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer’s Initiative has announced its second online innovation challenge, which seeks to identify differences in early cognitive decline between genders. Winning submissions will share $100,000 in prize awards.
This new initiative — called the 2013 Geoffrey Beene Global NeuroDiscovery Challenge — was announced Monday at the Society for Women’s Health Research Gala in Washington, DC.
“Not unlike cancer, the Geoffrey Beene Foundation’s lead philanthropic cause, most researchers agree that the greatest potential to stop Alzheimer’s lies in the earliest stages of the disease, which is why we fund translational research. Innovative Challenges help to support that mission,” said Tom Hutton, trustee and CEO of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation and president and CEO of Geoffrey Beene, LLC. “We must redefine the solutions process and free the greatest minds of our time to do the work to help save and improve lives.” Continue reading →
