With the nation’s economy in poor health, the joint congressional supercommittee offered the promise of a cure. But deliberations ended with no proposal, just a bitter pill – $1.2 trillion in mandatory cuts, half from defense and half from domestic programs, including medical research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
For millions of Americans and their families who suffer from serious illnesses and conditions, medical research is the beginning of hope. Our nation’s investment in NIH-funded medical research over the past 60 years has catalyzed many of the advances that are now helping Americans live longer and healthier lives.
Because of medical research, the death rate for heart disease in this country is more than 60 percent lower – and the death rate for stroke, 70 percent lower – than in the World War II era. Cancer death rates have dropped 11.4 percent among women and 19.2 percent among men over the past 15 years because of better detection and more effective treatments and the fact that people are changing their behavior to be healthier, such as stopping smoking. People diagnosed with HIV in their 20s who receive combination therapy may expect to live to age 70 or beyond. And a baby born today can look forward to an average life span of nearly 78 years, almost three decades longer than a baby born in 1900.
At the University of California San Diego Health Sciences, NIH funding fuels much of the extraordinary work that makes UC San Diego a research powerhouse. Faculty in the School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy at UCSD received nearly $600 million in competitive medical research funding from the NIH in 2010, ranking it among the top 10 public universities in the nation in NIH funding. Such research improves the economic health of our nation and our community. It has fueled the development of a robust biotech industry that has created skilled jobs and new products that generate economic growth.
This funding supports important clinical research that will reduce the probability of disease in areas such as cardiovascular health, tobacco cessation programs, diet and exercise, diabetes care, cancer prevention and health disparities. There are also major initiatives to speed development of discoveries from the research lab into treatment for patients.
UCSD Health Sciences has a long, proven track record in translational science. From UCSD Moores Cancer Center and the many research institutes on campus to our deep involvement in major clinical trials and status as one of the nation’s top teaching hospitals, the university has established itself as a vital hub for this kind of inspired work. NIH funding allows us to push ahead in new and even more imaginative ways, to advance medical research further, faster.
Our Department of Family and Preventive Medicine focuses on the next step: delivering these discoveries to the community. For example, we bring clinical researchers together with community partners to focus on behavioral changes – such as diet, exercise and smoking cessation – that improve patient health. We also work to eliminate health disparities by delivering health promotion programs to underserved populations, offering materials in Spanish as well as English.