November Marks American Diabetes Month
Did you know that nearly 26 million children and adults in the U.S. have diabetes, and another 79 million Americans have pre-diabetes and are at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), a Research!America member?
During the month of November, the ADA, along with other organizations, will raise awareness and understanding about this increasingly prevalent disease and ways to prevent it. This year’s theme is “A Day in the Life of Diabetes,” because diabetes doesn’t stop; it’s 24/7, 365 days a year. Visit ADA’s website, Twitter, and Facebook page to learn more about ways you can participate.
Researchers are making progress in identifying the genetics and “triggers” that predispose some individuals to develop Type 1 diabetes, but more research is needed to combat the disease. Tell Congress that we need more #curesnotcuts to help improve diabetes prevention and treatment. Speak up now!
Share Your Story: How You Can Fight for Tomorrow’s Medical Breakthroughs
By Endocrine Society President Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD
The sad stories flow in each day. A post-doctoral fellow gives up scientific research after 10 years of training. A cancer researcher faces a fruitless job search and expiring visa. The endocrinologist agonizes over letting a long-time lab employee go.
Hundreds of these tales are unfolding across the country as the National Institutes of Health struggles to stretch its dwindling budget. Because of sequestration, an NIH budget that barely kept pace with inflation through the 1990s and early 2000s was slashed by another $1.6 billion this fiscal year. If Congress cannot agree on a more balanced approach to budget cuts, another $6.7 billion in needed biomedical research funding will disappear in Fiscal Year 2014. The NIH funding cuts are nothing short of a disaster for biomedical science in the United States, as the Society journal Endocrinology’s Editor-in-Chief Andrea C. Gore observed in a recent editorial.
It is disheartening to think of the treatments that won’t be developed, the discoveries that won’t be made and the patients who will suffer as a result of Congress’ short-sighted funding decisions. As president of The Endocrine Society, I saw firsthand at the Society’s annual meeting ENDO 2013 just how many breakthroughs our researchers are making to ultimately improve the lives of people who have conditions like diabetes, thyroid disorders and cancer. Without biomedical research funding, promising scientific avenues won’t be explored and fewer new treatments will be available to patients in the years to come.
In my own lab at Northwestern University, we instituted a hiring freeze after our grant award was halved. Now we won’t be able to investigate some key questions, such as how endocrine-disrupting chemicals in our environment impact reproductive health.
But there are actions we as researchers and scientists can take to avert the worst effects of this crisis. Congress and the public need to know how much pain the sequester is causing by delaying breakthroughs in treating infertility, heart disease and metabolic disorders. Congress should reverse course. Take a moment to share your story with your Members of Congress, your hometown newspaper, or a health organization like The Endocrine Society, Research!America or United for Medical Research. By raising our voices as one, we can rewrite the story’s ending and protect our nation’s biomedical research legacy.
Budget sequestration could soon cost us in lives
An excerpt of an op-ed by Robert I. Field, PhD, JD, MPH, professor of the Earle Mack School of Law & Drexel School of Public Health published in Philly.com.
Robert I. Field, PhD, JD, MPH
What do we get when Congress cuts federal spending across-the-board? Does it bring lower taxes, smaller deficits, and less bureaucracy?
How about worse health care, less medical innovation, and lost lives?
The budget sequester that Congress enacted in 2011 began to take effect this year with spending cuts for most federal programs. So far, the majority of Americans have seen little change. Some may even applaud the idea of forcing the federal government to make due with less.
But the sequester is about to exert an especially sinister effect that lies just outside of public view. It could cripple medical research.
The National Institutes of Health is the largest single source of biomedical research funding in the world. It supports work at most universities in the United States and at many around the world.
That’s not just important to the physicians and researchers who work at those institutions. It’s vitally important to everyone. NIH funding stands behind the development of almost every major drug that has emerged over the past 50 years. You can see the impact of this agency every time you open your medicine cabinet. It has also brought us countless medical devices and procedures. And led to 83 Nobel prizes. Continue reading →
America’s Health Rankings Senior Report Released
The United Health Foundation recently released their first-ever comprehensive report on the health of America’s senior population. According to a statement from the authors Reed Tuckson, MD and Rhonda Randall, DO, “The report provides a comprehensive analysis of senior population health rankings on both national and state levels, and it comes at a critical time. Americans are living longer but sicker lives, and America’s senior population is poised to grow 53 percent between 2015 and 2030.” This fascinating report ranks each state by the incidence of several factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, low-care nursing, and food insecurity.
The United Health Foundation, a Research!America member, is dedicated to creating a healthier America and, through this report , the authors have released some disturbing data. For example, over a quarter of seniors are obese which places them at far greater risk of debilitating diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and certain cancers. Obesity, which was recently declared a disease by the American Medical Association, is also commonly linked to poorer health status and premature death. It is imperative that we work to reverse these trends as our population continues to age and place a greater burden on the healthcare system. Click through the report and see how your state ranks in the health of its seniors. 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 →
Rally for Medical Research: Building a grassroots movement to make medical research a higher national priority
Thousands of scientists, patients and research advocates gathered on the grounds of the Carnegie Library in Washington, DC, on April 8 to unite behind a call for increased funding for medical research. The Rally for Medical Research was organized by the American Association for Cancer Research in conjunction with their annual meeting and was supported by more than 200 partnering organizations — including Research!America. The program featured statements from patients and their families, scientists, policy makers, and research advocates. Cokie Roberts of ABC News and NPR, cancer survivor and research advocate, was the master of ceremonies. Continue reading →
Lancet Publishes Series on Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
On March 24, World Tuberculosis Day, the Lancet published a series of papers on the need to combat drug-resistant tuberculosis. Cases of drug-resistant TB are on the rise, posing a growing threat to the health of populations in all parts of the world.
The series consists of six papers written by international experts in the tuberculosis field, including Professor Alimuddin Zumla, Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the University College London Medical School and Dr. Marco Schito at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Some papers focus on TB diagnostics, highlighting advances such as the Xpert MTB/RIF test as well as the dire need for new affordable and effective diagnostics that can detect drug-resistant strains of the disease. One paper focuses on the more technical aspects of the disease and identifies the need for additional funding to research biomarkers for drug-resistant TB. Yet another paper discusses the importance of integrated health service and control efforts, as countries are facing a high burden of TB as well as non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Finally, the last two papers discuss the importance of community engagement in research and the need for visionary political leadership to advance global efforts to control TB.
Taken together, this series not only warns of the danger of the TB, but of the danger of inaction. If we are to make progress in the global fight against TB, we must take some of the recommendations for research and control efforts laid out in these papers. It will take concerted action from political leaders, health policy makers, funders and researchers to stem the growing threat of drug resistant TB.
-Morgan McCloskey, global health intern
Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley Applauds Supreme Court’s Dismissal of Embryonic Stem Cell Case
January 9, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court’s dismissal of Sherley v. Sebelius, a case intended to block federal funding for scientists conducting embryonic stem cell research, is a victory for patients and the research community. This key decision will allow the continuation of federal funding from the National Institutes of Health, providing essential support for scientists to conduct lifesaving research. Embryonic stem cells, which can repair or replace damaged tissue and organs, have advanced research aimed at finding cures and therapies to treat a wide variety of diseases and disorders including vision impairment, spinal cord injuries, and multiple sclerosis. Clinical trials have also shown promising therapeutic applications to help fight cancer, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and other disabling illnesses. We applaud the ruling and will continue to support such innovative research that could save millions of lives.
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World Sight Day
On October 11th, World Sight Day, the World Health Organization will raise awareness about visual impairment around the world, as well as their Vision 2020 initiative aimed at eliminating avoidable blindness by 2020. WHO estimates that 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired and about 39 million of those individuals are permanently blind. However, up to 80% of these cases are due to preventable causes like cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes, trachoma and onchocerciasis. The last two causes on that list may not sound familiar – trachoma and onchocerciasis are two types of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), diseases that have historically received little attention despite affecting 1.4 billion people throughout the world and right here in the U.S. On World Sight Day, we must not only raise awareness about these diseases, but of the need for additional funding and research to eliminate NTDs once and for all.
As the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness, trachoma results in an estimated $2.9 billion in lost productivity each year. Trachoma is a parasitic infection that mainly affects poor, rural communities in Africa and Asia. WHO has established key strategies for eliminating the disease, including surgery and antibiotic treatments for affected individuals and educational campaigns about the importance of facial cleanliness. International partnerships between the U.S. Agency for International Development, the International Trachoma Initiative and pharmaceutical companies have implemented these programs and helped to reduce trachoma cases from 149 million in 1997 to 60 million in 2008. Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, is the second leading cause of infectious blindness and can result in over $30 million in economic losses each year. Onchocerciasis is a parasitic infection transmitted through black sand flies and primarily affects river communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Through collaboration with global partners like WHO and USAID, the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control has focused on insecticide spraying and administering drugs in high risk communities since 1995. Overall, this strategy has reduced cases of river blindness by 73%, down to an estimated 37 million cases today.
This year on World Sight Day, we must celebrate the progress that has been made, while recognizing that there is clearly more work to be done. Current programs can be difficult to implement in rural areas and vaccines do not exist for either of these diseases. Additional investment in NTD research to develop new prevention and treatment methods will be an important component for Vision 2020’s efforts to eliminate preventable blindness around the world.
–Morgan McCloskey, global health intern
