Strategic Plan Update: Taking Our Research to a Higher Level

Dear Colleagues,

A key focus of the biomedical discovery strategic priority is to ensure that our scientists have access to the state-of-the-art instrumentation, technologies and expertise provided by core facilities. These resources are crucial in our ongoing pursuit of research that improves the health of our communities and the world. To that end, we continue to re-envision how our core facility portfolio is developed and administered. For example, moving our 100-plus school of medicine cores to an online platform called iLabs will consolidate ordering, billing and other administrative tasks, and improve access, efficiency and costs of core facilities.

Research Funding

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) continues to be the primary funder of research for our school of medicine. Last year, we received approximately $420 million in NIH funds, the second highest amount among medical schools in the United States. NIH funding has increased substantially this year. We are pleased that as we continue to diversify our research portfolio, non-NIH funding has grown 11 percent.

Our Discovery Fund Synergy Awards for new collaborative projects and our Innovation Awards for novel, single-investigator projects have begun to bear fruit, resulting in publications and follow-on grants. We are in our third year of these awards, and for the fiscal 2016 cycle, we received 189 applications. Please feel free to read about the discoveries of the eight Discovery Fund Synergy Award recipients and the 12 Innovation Award recipients.

It is also important that we recognize the dedication and hard work of our bright, innovative students and postdoctoral fellows, who will present their research at Young Investigators' Day on Thursday, April 14, at 4 p.m. on the East Baltimore campus in the Preclinical Teaching Building.

Clinical Trials

Epic represents a huge investment in time and funding to create a unified electronic medical record. Nearly 40 percent of patients are using the myChart patient portal to electronically communicate with their clinical team. We piloted sending research invitations to eligible patients through myChart and demonstrated this is a very cost-effective way to recruit. We are working to disseminate this service more broadly for our research community.

Thank You

There are many exciting initiatives taking place at Johns Hopkins to enhance our already world-class discovery enterprise. Breakthrough research is what sets us apart from other organizations. We are extremely proud of the commitment of our faculty and staff members and of your desire to find solutions to both common and extraordinary health challenges. Our research is just one way we are delivering the promise of medicine every day.

Sincerely,

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
EVP, Johns Hopkins Medicine