The federal Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) is coordinating development of an initial Health & Human Services (HHS) Action Plan to Strengthen Primary Care. In this early phase, OASH has issued a request for information (RFI) to gather input from members of the public about what the federal government could do to strengthen primary care in the US.
OASH is interested in “innovations, models, solutions to barriers, and possible HHS actions that may promote health equity, reduce health disparities, and improve health care access and health outcomes.” OASH seeks input from persons, communities, health care providers, purchasers and payers, educators, researchers, and other members of the public, including community-based settings (e.g., public housing, group homes, and assisted living facilities where older adults and people with disabilities may live).
In addition, insights into populations traditionally underserved by current primary care are welcomed. OASH seeks information about successful approaches and innovations that improve primary health care payment; delivery models; service integration; access; workforce education, training, and wellbeing; digital health; and primary care measurement and research.
The comment period closes August 1, 2022. More information may be found in the original Federal Register notice. Responses may be sent to OASHPrimaryHealthCare@hhs.gov. Include Primary Health Care RFI in the subject line.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) has released notice of an upcoming funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to support virtual resource centers that will foster institutional partnerships and provide resources to support research activities and training for faculty who work at partnering U.S. domestic complementary and integrative health institutions. NCCIH supports several opportunities for clinician-scientists trained in complementary and integrative health practices to pursue clinically informed research careers at the individual level. However, institutions training health care practitioners in the use of complementary approaches often lack key research resources to fully support clinician-scientist careers of their faculty.
The REsearch Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) virtual resource centers are intended to fill that gap by fostering partnerships with accredited, academic institutions providing clinical degrees in complementary and integrative health professions and by providing a wide array of research and training resources to support clinician-scientist faculty located at these clinical institutions. It is expected that REACH virtual resource centers will (1) improve the quality and quantity of grant applications submitted by faculty at complementary and integrative health clinical institutions; (2) aid the formation of multi and interdisciplinary research partnerships across partnering integrative health clinical institutions; (3) help to enhance the research environment at integrative health clinical institutions; and (4) support a pipeline for clinician-scientists trained in complementary and integrative health practices to pursue research careers at integrative health clinical institutions. Read More
The effects of mechanical forces on the human body are of great interest to two groups of professionals: scientists who study neural systems involved in mechanosensation and clinicians who use force-based manipulations—such as spinal manipulation, massage therapy, or acupuncture—to treat health problems.
Unfortunately, despite their overlapping interests, these groups do not have many opportunities to talk to one another. Manual therapists and neuroscientists do not often go to the same meetings or read the same journals. And therefore, the potential for synergy between the fields of mechanosensation and manual therapies has been largely unexplored.
NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is taking steps toward changing this situation. Read More
Inclusion plans. You have questions. NIH has answers. What exactly are they? How do they relate to NIH’s policies requiring specific populations be included in NIH-supported clinical research? What do they mean for your application? And, what is an inclusion table anyway?
In Part 1 of this NIH All About Grants podcast miniseries, NIH’s Inclusion Policy Officer explains how to consider inclusion plans when putting together your application (MP3 / Transcript).
Part 2 covers inclusion plans during peer review and post-award (MP3 / Transcript). Want to know what is scientifically appropriate as it relates to inclusion, and how reviewers are looking at it? What about the ins and outs on progress reporting? And if you have concerns about enrollment in your funded study, what should you do? Well, as a start, put on your earbuds and listen.
Interested in this topic? Learn more in NIH's related podcasts on the Inclusion Across the Lifespan policy and valid/stratified analysis.
The 21st Century Cures Act called for NIH to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration to reduce administrative burdens associated with laboratory animal research programs, while maintaining high standards of animal welfare as well as the integrity and credibility of the research. These agencies jointly released a final report in 2019 outlining steps to accomplish this goal, and have since worked together to implement many of the recommendations. In this article, NIH shares some of its progress and tips on how you can remain involved. Read More
NIH continues their review of the 5-year distributions of gender, race, and ethnicity of designated principal investigators of R01 and RPG applications submitted before and after the onset of the pandemic. Read More