Month: September 2024

This summer started off great for OSP from a creative standpoint.  First, we developed a new informed consent language resource to help the research community responsibly communicate about digital health technologies. Our creative juices were still flowing throughout July when we launched a new PartnersinResearch site that also includes 14 NIH Institute, Center, and Office case studies (and counting!) that researchers, patients, patient advocates, and caregivers can use to strengthen their own patient engagement approaches. Barreling into August we launched a new page on the OSP website that revisits NIH’s policy framework as it relates to advancing artificial intelligence to help researchers think through the implications of the development and use of this technology.

Recently, NIH Principal Deputy Director, Dr. Larry Tabak, OER Deputy Director, Dr. Liza Bundesen, and I had the honor of hosting the heads of 15 German research universities as part of a delegation visit to the US. It was so great to be able to share the NIH story with our international partners, which included discussions about how NIH makes funding decisions. As an extra bonus, they took a tour of our one of kind, state of the art research hospital, the NIH Clinical Center.  We heard that nothing like NIH exists in Germany, so I think they left impressed! We all promised to K.I.T.

Entering into the second year of the OSP summer internship (recently expanded to undergraduates), OSP hosted three amazingly talented interns who accomplished some really impressive projects – stay tuned for their stories. Details on how to apply for next summer’s internship will be posted to the OSP website in January 2025.

Finally, I was energized to meet with the policy professionals of tomorrow when I joined the NIH Oxford–Cambridge Scholars Program Annual Colloquium. Here, I shared about how I got engaged in science policy and hopefully imparted some nuggets of wisdom for navigating the trajectory!

The best way to solve a problem is to ask for help from many, many different people!  This summer OSP asked for a lot of help, which you may have seen through our numerous requests for information on policy issues related to promoting equity in access planning, raising public voices in clinical research, and public access to NIH-supported research findings. We are always immensely grateful for time people take to provide thought-provoking feedback, which can ultimately be found on the public comment page of the OSP Website once we’ve sorted through it all!

This summer we also hosted two listening sessions on issues we are really passionate about. The first session focused on NIH levers to promote access to NIH discoveries.  The second session was co-hosted with our fantastic partners at CISCRP and our NExTRAC ENGAGE leaders, and focused on hearing from individuals their perspectives on engagement in clinical research.

While I am an active concert goer, I was particularly excited about being among the invited guests to see the unveiling of Dr. Francis Collins’ NIH Director portrait.  Of course, if Dr. Collins is in attendance, there is an excellent chance that Rosalind (his guitar) will also be in the house. As you can see, Dr. Collins serenaded the audience, which included his wife Diane, former Senator Roy Blunt, former NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni, current NIH Director, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, several of the NIH Institute Directors and many others whose lives were touched by this inspirational leader.

As you might be able to tell, it was a busy summer. So much happened over this summer that I feel like it just flew by.  Thankfully, I did get a little bit of time to take a vacation to see friends, family, and Babe, the blue ox at Paul Buyan land. I truly hope you were able to also take some time to enjoy the summer as well! 

With summer now in the rearview mirror, I am excited to see what the fall brings. If the past is any indication, the fall will be a busy time here at NIH.  Some things to look forward to as we enter the last few months of 2024 include the next iteration of NIH’s annual bioethics supplement, the finalization of the numerous policies discussed above, community conversations related to the ENGAGE initiative, the meeting of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director in December and much more. Feel free to share your summer pics with us as well!