The National Eczema Association is a member of Research!America. Research!America is the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance. Since 1989, they have been committed to making research to improve health a higher national priority. Together, with more than 500 member organizations, representing a vast array of medical, health and scientific fields, they aim to achieve four important goals:

• Achieve funding for medical and health research from the public and private sectors at a level warranted by scientific opportunity and supported by public opinion.
• Better inform the public of the benefits of medical and health research and the institutions that perform research.
• Motivate the public to actively support medical and health research and the complementary sciences that make advances possible.
• Promote and empower a more active public and political life by individual members of the research community on behalf of medical and health research, public health, and science overall.

The National Eczema Association will post all relevant news and information regarding Research!America initiatives here to facilitate education and advocacy on research issues important to eczema patients. You may wish to visit their website at: researchamerica.org.

Postdate: May 21, 2010

Research Poll Finds Concerns About Pace of U.S. Medical & Health Research

Nearly three-quarters of Americans are confident in our system for reviewing the effectiveness and safety of new medicines and medical devices, yet 41% say it takes too long to approve a drug and allow it to be sold to consumers. These are among the findings in a new poll from Research!America.

  "Public expectations for medical progress are very high—Americans want new drugs and medical devices delivered faster, and they rightly want safety to be a top priority," said Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America. "To meet these expectations, resources for FDA and our nation’s health research agencies—the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—need to keep pace so they can fulfill their missions, and the public needs to let elected officials know how important these issues are."

Woolley noted that the proposed 2011 budgets for FDA, NIH and CDC are not currently slated to keep pace even with inflation, much less with public expectations and scientific opportunity. She said, "We can and must do better."

The poll found very strong support (94%) for the idea that institutions conducting medical and health research—government, universities and private industry—should work together. Americans see such collaboration as leading to greater knowledge, better success rates and faster development of cures and treatments, as well as avoiding duplication and maximizing resources devoted to research and development.

Additional findings from the poll include:

• After health care costs and insurance issues—which have long been the top health concern for Americans—one in four says the most important health issue facing the U.S. today is obesity (24%), ahead of cancer (11%) and heart disease (5%).
• 76% say clinical research is of great value, and the same number say they are likely to participate in a clinical study, but only 6% say their doctor has ever suggested that they do so.
• 93% say it is important—and 69% say very important—for the U.S. to be a global leader in medical, health and scientific research.
• When asked to name the government agency that funds most of the taxpayer-supported medical research in the U.S., nearly one in five mistakenly named the FDA; fewer than 10% correctly named the NIH.

Postdate: January 5, 2010

NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, authored a Policy Forum article in the current issue of Science (1/1/10), "Opportunities for Research and NIH."

He details the five areas of opportunity he sees as holding particular promise for NIH: high through-put technologies, translational medicine, benefiting health care reform, focusing more on global health, and reinvigorating and empowering the biomedical research community.

Of the role for research in reinventing health care, he writes that "NIH can make substantial contributions" through comparative effectiveness research, prevention and personalized medicine, health disparities research, pharmacogenomics, and health research economics.

In closing, he writes, "Recruiting, retaining, and empowering scientists from many disciplines to work together, supported by a stable trajectory for biomedical research support, are critical to realize the unprecedented opportunities that lie in front of us. It is time to be bold."

The article is available online (subscription required).

Postdate: February 19, 2009

Billions for Research in Recovery Package
Thank Congress and the President

Today, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. NIH, AHRQ, NSF and a new prevention and wellness fund will see substantial funding increases thanks to strong support from advocates like you and congressional champions. Senator Arlen Specter, who led the effort to include $10 billion for NIH, acknowledges the critical role that thousands of advocates for research played to help secure this funding. Take the time now to thank your Representative and Senators and President Obama for approving increases for NIH, AHRQ, NSF and prevention and wellness in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The funding in the recovery package is as follows:

• NIH - $10 billion, including $7.4 billion for distribution to the institutes and centers, $1.3 billion for extramural construction and equipment, $800 million for the Office of the Director for trans-NIH initiatives, and $500 million for improvements to the NIH campus.
• AHRQ - $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research.
• NSF - $3 billion, including $2.5 billion for research, $400 million for construction and equipment, and $100 million for education and human resources.
• Prevention and wellness fund - $1 billion, of which some portion will be allocated to CDC.

The tremendous surge of support from health and research advocates made these increases possible. Let's keep the momentum going as we anticipate action on FY 2009 and 2010 appropriations!