Recommendations by ‘Red Team’ Set in Motion

The Red Team, a working group assembled by the ACD to evaluate the hospital following a problem last year in the CC pharmaceutical development section, reported findings at a special ACD meeting in April. 

“Our current structure—the way that we currently attempt to manage the Clinical Center—makes it very difficult to achieve our end result,” said NIH principal deputy director Dr. Lawrence Tabak, giving context for the first major realignment of CC governance since the largest research hospital in the world opened. 

Outlining three guiding themes—all with the overarching principle to “fortify a culture and practice of safety”—Tabak gave an update on progress NIH has made on the report’s recommendations:

• A central Office of Research Support and Compliance was formed to set policy and standards and assure quality; Dr. Kathryn Zoon was appointed as its interim director.

• A CEO position was established with authority over all NIH staff using the hospital; a search committee to fill the post will be co-chaired by NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci and NIAMS director Dr. Stephen Katz.

• A clinical practice committee composed of senior clinical and lab experts is forming, to provide real-time input to leadership on patient care and safety.

• A new external hospital board will hold its first meeting in July.

“Science and safety must go hand in hand,” Tabak emphasized. “There can’t ever be tradeoffs between innovation and safety and compliance. Our collective goal will be to exceed—not just meet—all safety and compliance standards and become a leader in the discipline of safety science.”

See the Red Team implementation slides at https://acd.od.nih.gov/documents/reports/06092016report-RedTeam.pdf.