March 18, 2015: Johns Hopkins Medicine Strategic Plan Update: Biomedical Discovery

Dear Colleagues,

Our mission to improve the health of our communities begins with cutting-edge biomedical research. Our scientists work in labs and directly with patients to investigate the causes of disease and translate discoveries into cures and innovative treatments that improve our patients' quality of life. This bench-to-bedside approach ensures our patients receive the highest-quality care.

Our expertise has led to extraordinary discoveries for cancer, vision loss and other medical conditions. With continued funding, we hope to become an exemplary model for biomedical research by advancing and integrating discovery, innovation, translation and dissemination—a key priority in our five-year Strategic Plan. 

To achieve that goal, it is paramount that we invest sufficient resources. National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants are the major source of funding for Johns Hopkins research. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is currently ranked second in NIH funding among U.S. medical schools, and The Johns Hopkins University leads the nation's universities in NIH funding.

That said, the NIH budget has declined by 20 percent over the last five years when adjusted for inflation, so we are exploring other ways to fund and support our research mission. Some of these efforts are listed below.

• The second round of the Discovery Fund Synergy Awards for new collaborative projects and the Innovation Awards for novel, single-investigator projects were announced earlier this month. We expect to receive over 100 applications from worthy research teams.
• We are focused on engaging our patients in research. We have been fortunate to receive funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a nonprofit organization authorized as part of the Affordable Care Act to improve health care decisions. In December, we held a two-hour training program for 80 Johns Hopkins Medicine patients so they could feel more confident working with research teams. Currently, our patients are helping with studies in rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, obesity, atrial fibrillation and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
• We have created an infrastructure within the Office of Capital Region Research to support our Washington metro area hospitals—Howard County General Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital and Suburban Hospital. This effort is proving successful. In the 2014 calendar year, there were 25 principal investigators involved in 98 active protocols with over 420 patients. Most importantly, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are collaborating with our Johns Hopkins Medicine hospitals on several protocols and multiple oncology studies.

Our next Town Meeting, which will be held on Thursday, April 2, at noon in Hurd Hall, will focus on the biomedical discovery strategic priority. You can also learn more at hopkinsmedicine.org/strategic_plan/biomedical_discovery.html. Remember, if you have thoughts about the Strategic Plan, please email us at strategicplan@jhmi.edu.

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Ronald R. Peterson
President
The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System