THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Health and Medicine Division
Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
Committee for the Assessment of NIH Research on Autoimmune Diseases
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Congressional Briefings
Monday, May 9, 2022 – 1:00 p.m. and 2:15 p.m.
via Zoom
on
Enhancing NIH Research on Autoimmune Disease
Requested by Congress in P.L. 116- 94, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, this new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assesses the autoimmune disease research portfolio of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The report found that while NIH has made impressive contributions to research on autoimmune diseases, there is an absence of a strategic NIH-wide autoimmune disease research plan and a need for greater coordination across the institutes and centers to optimize opportunities for collaboration. To meet these challenges, this report calls for the creation of an Office of Autoimmune Disease/Autoimmunity Research in the Office of the Director of NIH. The Office could facilitate NIH-wide collaboration, and engage in prioritizing, budgeting, and evaluating research. Enhancing NIH Research on Autoimmune Disease also calls for the establishment of long term systems to collect epidemiologic and surveillance data and long term studies (20+ years) to study disease across the life course. Finally, the report provides an agenda that highlights research needs that crosscut many autoimmune diseases, such as understanding the effect of environmental factors in initiating disease.
These briefings were for members of Congress and congressional staff only. The report was publicly released on May 10, 2022 and can be found, in its entirety, on the Web site of the National Academies Press.