The National Institutes of Health, 1991-2008 / John A. Kastor

Author:: Kastor, John A.
Published:: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Physical Description:: xvi, 273 pages, 5 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

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Contents:

Intramural research program -- Extramural research program -- The Institutes -- The centers -- Finances -- Congress and advocacy -- Directors -- Controversies.

Summary:

"The National Institutes of Health 1991-2008 explores the NIH as the premier organization for performing and funding biomedical research in the United States. Based on interviews with over 220 people within and outside the NIH, the volume describes events occuring at the organization during the terms of directors Bernadine Healy (1991-1993), Harold Varmus (1993-1999) and Elias Zerhouni (2002-2008). Both the accomplishments and the problems of these leaders' directorships are reviewed in detail." "Each of the NIH's twenty institutes, most of which are concerned with particular diseases, and seven centers, are reviewed in detail. Moreover, the author thoroughly analyzes the intramural and extramural programs, the two major components of the NIH organization. The intramural research program on the NIH campuses employs more than 1000 biomedical scientists and operates the Clinical Center, the hospital in which investigators study patients with rare diseases and those participating in research projects. In the extramural program, 80% of the NIH's annual budget of about $30 billion is distributed to investigators in the nation's medical schools and research institutes. The author pays special attention to the controversies that have riled the NIH recently and the ways in which Congress and public advocates have affected the NIH's budget and activities. These include conflicts of interest in the intramural and extramural programs, research using stem cells, support of clinical versus basic research, and the current status of the intramural program." "With the appointment of Francis Collins, a superb scientist but a strongly religious man who some suggest possesses views antithetical to scientific reason, as the new director of the NIH, this book seems particularly timely as an analysis of one of our nation's most important organizations. After decreased budgetary support during the Bush years, supporters of the NIH and bioscience are hoping and expecting more generous policies to originate with the Obama administration."--BOOK JACKET.

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ISBN:

9780199737994 (alk. paper)
0199737991 (alk. paper)

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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