AAMC Reporter: March 2009

A Word from the President: "Driving The Economy Through Medical Research"

It is often said that out of challenge comes opportunity. We certainly face an economic challenge unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. Yet at the same time, this challenge recently presented our community with an opportunity to show lawmakers the importance of medical research to our nation's fiscal as well as physical health. The result was the $10.4 billion over two years included for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the economic recovery package (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, ARRA). This remarkable investment is discussed further in this month's front page news story.

This welcome news was due to the tremendous work of both our congressional champions and our membership. As a community, we applaud and thank Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), and Representative David Obey (D-Wis.) for their tireless efforts and skillful leadership on this issue. Additionally, we are grateful to our members for helping demonstrate to lawmakers—through personal contacts, letters to policymakers, and Capitol Hill visits—that medical research is a key driver of economic growth and an essential part of the future, innovation-based economy.

However, our work is not done. While we are all encouraged by—and grateful for—this substantial infusion of funds, we must keep in mind lessons learned from the "boom-bust" cycles of previous periods of NIH funding, and in particular, the lost opportunities for science and the delayed hope for patients and their families that have resulted from those periods of lagging funding. Our challenge now is to ensure that the NIH stimulus funding is not viewed as an isolated event, but rather that it serves as the first step toward a renewed national commitment to sustained, predictable growth in the NIH budget over the long term.

Evidence that this message is beginning to resonate at the national level is demonstrated by the Obama administration's goal to double federal funding for basic research over the next 10 years. When considered along with the nearly $1 billion increase in the NIH's FY 2009 appropriations, the $10.4 billion constitutes a sizable "down payment" toward this goal. The challenge now for academic medicine is to work with the NIH to assure the American people that they will receive an optimal economic and scientific return on their investment. As work gets underway on the FY 2010 budget, all of us need to communicate to both the administration and Congress the need for sustained, investment in the NIH over time.

In this regard, the AAMC has a long tradition of leadership on NIH advocacy inside the Beltway, from convening the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research to the Fulfilling the Promise campaign that educates Congress about the partnership between the NIH and the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals. In addition, over the last year, we have been working with the Association of American Universities, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges on an innovative new approach called ResearchMeansHope.org.

Designed to complement our ongoing NIH advocacy efforts, ResearchMeansHope.org will reach "beyond the Beltway" to generate public support for NIH. It will target key congressional districts represented by members of Congress who have the potential to become new champions of NIH, using a combination of traditional print and radio advertising, as well as social media. Additionally, a new Web site will enable the public to e-mail their members of Congress in support of NIH funding. Our hope is to launch the pilot campaign in mid-April (when the FY 2010 budget process begins in earnest) in two congressional districts in Ohio and South Carolina. We deeply appreciate the financial support that so many of our institutions already have provided for this campaign.

As the debate over the economic recovery package made clear, congressional champions play an enormously important advocacy role. But as we move forward into the FY 2010 budget process (and with it, the fiscal constraints and tough choices that await), we will need to make an extremely compelling case for sustainable, predictable, and real growth in the NIH budget over the long haul. Two key factors to this effort are an engaged public who will speak out in support of NIH, and a broader base of members of Congress willing to serve as champions for medical research funding.

While the current economic crisis has brought much of American business to a standstill that we fervently hope is short-lived, it is important to recall that, for millions of Americans, the onward progression of disease offers no respite. In this time of tremendous new knowledge and advances,medical research is the best and often only hope for the millions of patients and their families who suffer from cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, depression, diabetes, asthma, and other burdensome illnesses. As our nation works toward economic recovery, we must demonstrate that medical research is one of the best investments we can make in our future.

Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., AAMC President and CEO