NIH
I'm a physician [and] also a basic scientist. I'm impatient about figuring out how basic science discoveries can find their way into clinical benefits - Francis Collins MD PhD
image by: NIH - Public Domain
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Do taxpayers get their money’s worth from the National Institutes of Health?
The NIH isn’t perfect. In the upcoming book Rigor Mortis, NPR science reporter Richard Harris dives into the many flaws of biomedical research, namely the replication crisis. This catchall term refers to a growing trend whereupon biomedical researchers fail to reproduce each other’s results. Anyone familiar with the scientific method recognizes that’s a serious problem...
Yet the nature of science is failure. Millions of biomedical experiments are conducted each year just to prep drug candidates for human testing, yet only one in 10 will survive clinical trials. Harris estimates “of the 7,000 known diseases, only about 500 have treatments.” Not all of those remedies came from the…
Resources
A Short History of the National Institutes of Health
The NIH traces its roots to 1887, when a one-room laboratory was created within the Marine Hospital Service (MHS), predecessor agency to the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS).
Credibility concerns lead NIH to end study on alcohol's health effects
A huge study on the possible health benefits of drinking alcohol will be completely shut down, because its credibility was compromised by frequent and early interactions between alcohol industry executives, scientists and government officials.
For a decade, Francis Collins has shielded NIH—while making waves of his own
Observers say Collins has also been one of the most influential directors ever to shape NIH...
Do taxpayers get their money’s worth from the National Institutes of Health?
There has been no systematic attempt to measure the quality of biomedical science as a whole, but Leonard Freedman, who started a nonprofit called the Global Biological Standards Institute, teamed up with two economists to put a dollar figure on the problem in the United States.
NIH
NIH’s mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.
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