ROADMAP RECAP: A YEAR'S WORTH OF MILESTONES
Praised for her "flawless execution of a very complex process" by NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, NIH Roadmap coordinator Dushanka Kleinman delivered a first-year Roadmap progress report at the December 2004 meeting of the Advisory Committee to the [NIH] Director.
In general, she said, 2004 could be characterized as a year of seeding new tools and technologies for the team science and clinical research of the future. Among the year’s achievements:
Establishing four National
Centers for Biomedical Computing (with more to be funded in 2005)
Launching the Patient-Reported
Outcomes Measurement Information System, with seven grants, six to
primary research centers
Funding 20 nanomedicine concept-planning grants, which will form the solicitation
base for Nanomedicine Development Centers in 2005 and 2006 (see story
"Nanomedicine Initiative")
Funding 21 interdisciplinary
research exploratory centers and identifying institutional barriers
to interdisciplinary research
Conducting an inventory of clinical
research networks (500 already identified) to identify best practices
Launching 12 pilot studies to assess the feasibility of integrating and
increasing the interoperability of clinical research networks and to pave
the way for NECTAR
(National Electronics Clinical Trials and Research network)
Designing the scope for planning grants to be funded in 2005 and 2006
for regional translational research centers, as well as for core services
similar to the NCI RAID program (see story "A
Look at the Roadmap's RAID")
Completing the first round of the NIH Director’s Pioneer
Award, with more than 1,300 nominees vying for the nine awards