On Wednesday, February 24, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new initiative to accelerate the translation of scientific breakthroughs into innovative medical therapies for patients. The project will marry translational science and regulatory science to formally integrate the unique roles of the two agencies, ensuring that regulatory review considerations become part of scientific research planning, and vice versa. The initiative will establish a Joint NIH-FDA Leadership Council to lead collaborations on significant public health issues. Further, the NIH and FDA jointly announced a Request For Applications, making $6.75 million in awards available over three years for organizations and institutions to study the application of novel technologies and approaches towards the development and regulatory review of medical products.

Read the NIH press release

View the Request For Applications

Learn more about regulatory science at FDA

Last week, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $100 million in federal grant funds to be made available over the next five years to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare services for children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), signed into law in February 2009, authorized the awards to put forth models to evaluate provider performance and implement meaningful health information technology strategies, including the development of a new pediatric electronic health record format. Awardees include single-state projects and multi-state collaborations, with leadership in Maine, Oregon, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Utah, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Florida.

View the HHS news release, including additional information about the awardees

President Obama convened a bipartisan meeting on health reform on Thursday, February 25 to encourage open and honest dialogue between Republican and Democrat Congressional leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The meeting underscored President Obama’s continued commitment to pass health reform this year, and highlighted key areas of agreement as well as key distinctions between Democrat and Republican proposals.

On March 2, President Obama sent a letter to Congressional leaders summarizing the progress made by the meeting, acknowledging fundamental disagreements, such as the role oversight of the health insurance industry should play in reform, and communicating his willingness to explore policy priorities put forth by the Republican leadership. These priorities include: 1) identifying alternative methods to eliminating waste and abuse, including investigating physicians who receive federal program payments, 2) establishing grants to states for demonstrations of alternatives to resolving medical malpractice disputes, 3) increasing Medicaid reimbursements, and 4) expanding Health Savings Accounts as a method of encouraging cost-consciousness in consumers’ use of healthcare services.

View the White House coverage of the Health Reform Summit

Read the President’s letter to Congressional leaders

Same Weekly Policy Bulletin, different time! Genetic Alliance will now provide you the most up-to-date information on genetics and health policy--including legislative updates, Congressional and regulatory agency activity, newly released publications and reports, and opportunities for engaging in the policymaking process--on Wednesdays.