Learn more about the teamwork between the NIH and America's medical schools and teaching hospitals

Washington, D.C., June 21, 2005 - "Fulfilling the Promise," a new campaign to build awareness of the teamwork between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and researchers at the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals, was launched yesterday by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges). NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., joined AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., at a Capitol Hill briefing on how academic medicine's teamwork with the NIH serves as the nation's driving force in the search for cures, new treatments, and better ways to improve health and save lives.

"We are clearly in an age of unprecedented scientific opportunity to unlock the deepest secrets of human biology," said AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. "Fulfilling this promise depends upon our critical collaboration with the NIH and its essential support of the research mission of America's medical schools and teaching hospitals."

"Tremendous advances in patient care have been made because of the vital work done at NIH-supported institutions across the country," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "We look forward to future progress as new diagnostic, treatment, and prevention approaches are pioneered at U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals."

For more than 60 years, the teamwork between the NIH and academic medicine has pioneered many of medicine's most remarkable advances, including life-saving vaccines, new and better treatments for diabetes, cancer and heart disease, and advanced technology to improve quality of life, from artificial hips to minimally invasive surgical techniques. Recent examples of these NIH-supported advances by physicians and scientists at medical schools and teaching hospitals include:

• Identification of genes for prostate cancer, muscular dystrophy, and basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer
• Development of the first FDA-approved cardiac stent
• Discovery of the hormone resistin, which promotes type 2 diabetes and is resistant to insulin
• New uses for MRI imaging technology
• Development of the first vaccine for cholera
• Design of a robotic, prosthetic arm controlled by the brain.

More than half of all grants awarded through the NIH's extramural research program goes to physicians and scientists at medical schools and teaching hospitals. In 2004, the NIH invested $13 billion in research at medical schools and teaching hospitals across the country.

Medical schools and teaching hospitals also work with the NIH to train the next generation of biomedical researchers. Supported by a combination of NIH and institutional funds, graduate programs at U.S. medical schools train more than half of all biomedical science Ph.D.s. Approximately 27,000 students are currently enrolled in these programs.

The Fulfilling the Promise campaign was developed to address a knowledge gap revealed by a 2004 AAMC opinion research study which showed that, while congressional staff have favorable opinions of medical schools and teaching hospitals and the NIH, a plurality of those surveyed were unaware of the role medical schools and teaching hospitals play in conducting the majority of the NIH's extramural research.

In addition to yesterday's briefing for Capitol Hill staff, the AAMC and its members will collaborate on future campaign activities, including: additional briefings by NIH institute directors and grantee scientists on specific disease topics, a searchable Web database of NIH-funded discoveries and innovations at medical schools and teaching hospitals, and other activities that showcase how NIH support is helping medical schools and teaching hospitals fulfill the promise of improving the nation's health.

To view a Webcast of yesterday's briefing or to learn more about the progress of NIH-funded research at medical schools and teaching hospitals go to www.aamc.org/ftp

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 129 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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