Network Of Children's Research Centers Valuable In Understanding Disease
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Vice Chair of theCommittee on Energy and Commerce, today joined with U.S. Rep. PeterKing (R-NY), to introduce the "National Pediatric Research ConsortiaEstablishment Act of 2008." This important bipartisan health carelegislation will create a network of pediatric centers that willmaximize the potential for prevention and intervention by providingenabling infrastructure to support basic and translational research.The bill will create up to 20 "hub-and-spoke" pediatric researchconsortia, modeled after the National Cancer Institute's ComprehensiveCancer Centers, in which each lead institution will work with varioussatellite centers, allowing many more pediatric research institutionsand children's hospitals to benefit from cross-cutting pediatricresearch and expertise.
"It is astonishing that only five percent of the National Institute ofHealth's (NIH) budget is directed at pediatric-specific research atchildren's hospitals – the best qualified place for such vital research– when children represent roughly one-quarter of the U.S. population,"said DeGette. "That fact, combined with the impact that prevention andquality health care during childhood can have on long-term healthoutcomes, further underscores the importance of our pediatric researchconsortia legislation. In order to best support the health of futuregenerations, we need to truly understand disease pathways duringchildhood – and the National Pediatric Research Consortia Act willenable us to take a step closer to that goal."
"There is an increasing need for more research on pediatric illnessesas we seek to find ways to improve the lives of our children, both intheir early years and through their adulthood," said King. "Thislegislation will establish a coordinated federal effort in research sothat we may better understand, treat, and prevent childhood disorders.The consortia will be invaluable in the fight to advance children'shealth across the country and I am fully supportive of its formation."
The DeGette-King bipartisan legislation creating pediatric researchcenters will empower outstanding peer-reviewed researchers and researchprojects by developing interdisciplinary collaborations andmulti-institutional networks with state-of-the-art technologies. Thisapproach will lead to new understanding of the biological and geneticbases of major disorders that afflict children, and translate suchunderstanding into prevention and intervention strategies and improvedoutcomes that have both immediate and lifelong impact. Its Senatecompanion bill was introduced in April by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH)and Christopher Bond (R-MS).