NIAMS Coalition Meeting Highlights Federal, Nonprofit Collaborations
The ninth biennial 2023 NIAMS Coalition Outreach and Education Meeting recently convened NIH staff and representatives from more than 40 organizations. The coalition—composed of more than 95 professional and voluntary organizations interested in NIAMS’s research and mission—met in person on the NIH campus for the first time since 2019.
NIAMS Director Dr. Lindsey Criswell kicked off the meeting with a high-level overview of key institute activities and research partnerships, including programs within the Accelerating Medicines Partnerships® (AMP) and the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative®. Criswell also underscored the institute’s commitment to ending structural racism and provided brief updates on the forthcoming 2025-2029 NIAMS strategic plan.
When asked how organizations can best support NIAMS, Criswell noted her appreciation for how the coalition works together. “I would encourage you to think about the issues and concerns you share and how you can work together to represent our [shared] mission areas,” she said.
NIH Principal Deputy Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak noted his appreciation for the collective voices the group represents. Commenting on how patient advocacy organizations can influence change, Tabak, who formerly led the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, said, “as an institute director, it influenced dramatically how we positioned ourselves, how we re-organized our priorities to be more patient-centric.”
For the meeting’s first plenary session, the group heard from Dr. Julie Gerberding, chief executive officer of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). She discussed FNIH’s mission to accelerate and amplify the value and impact of NIH research. Gerberding also discussed the AMP program, which FNIH manages, and highlighted future AMP-related programs soon to launch.
In the second plenary, Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), spoke about ARPA-H’s first funded project: Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis (NITRO)—a topic of great interest to NIAMS and many coalition organizations. NITRO will focus on finding new ways to help the human body repair itself by investing in injectable substances that regenerate bone and cartilage, and replacement joints built from human cells. The plenary sessions, along with the opening remarks, are archived at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=52254.
Multiple breakout sessions covered topics ranging from how to engage with NIAMS program directors, to patient-focused initiatives, to the role of data science and artificial intelligence in health and biomedical research. Attendees also had an opportunity to learn from each other and network during a poster session.
Dr. Stephanie Burrows, chief of the NIAMS Scientific Planning, Policy, and Analysis Branch, gave an in-depth update on the NIAMS FY 2025-2029 strategic plan. She also discussed progress to date and upcoming opportunities for coalition partners to provide input, including a recently published Request for Information, which is available for comment until Jan. 1, 2024.
At the end of a fruitful meeting, Tricha Shivas of the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research and Lee Grossman of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation summed up the day: “As [coalition ] co-chairs, we were delighted to see the enthusiasm, energy and momentum that evolves from the power of bringing NIH leaders together with patient advocacy organizations and medical societies.”
