Librarian Stuff: Howard University Health Sciences Research Day 2012

Research Day is the final event in our Library Week series. It's a chance for students to showcase and be judged on research posters, conduct oral presentations, and attend a series of lectures.

The keynote speaker was Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., the director of NIH. If you read my post about my dream job, you can imagine how excited I was to meet him. I'm interested in combating health disparities on an international scale and was so excited to learn about Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3 Africa). 

Dr. Collins gave an amazing lecture, I love that he spoke on a level that was easily understandable for non-MDs. Highlights of what I found interesting below:
  • GHUCCTS- mainly focused on eliminating health disparities, still young but doing big things
    • Need for health disparities comparative expectedness research
  • Funding:
  • Improvements in progress of therapeutic development- the creation of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and White House's Lab to Marketplace Initiatives.
  • Institutes to keep an eye on: NIH National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and NIMHD Research Centers in Minority Institutions
  • The plummeting cost of human genome sequencing is revolutionizing how individuals receive medical treatment--it's becoming possible to individualize and customize care.
  • In diabetes research, the provision of a life coach proved to be the most beneficial factor in improving a patient's condition. Efforts are underway to determine if Medicaid/Medicare will cover expenses for a non-physician.
  • NIH recently uncovered racial disparity in grant awards. Collins gave three possible reasons:
    • Unconscious bias
    • Minority applicants tend to have weaker support systems than their majority counterparts
    • Minorities are less likely to resubmit applications after their 1st decline
      • See 'Race, Ethnicity, and NIH Research Awards' and 'Weaving a Richer Tapestry in Biomedical Science' in Science
    • Bringing new investigators into the grant selection process seems to be a valid solution, offering those researchers an inside look at successful applications. Also, creating a mentoring program that pairs successful, established researchers with new ones could be a useful approach.

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