Sparking Innovation: Patients First, Mice Second
Hello. I am Robert Gerszten, Director of Clinical and Translational Research for the new Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Heart, Vascular and Stroke Care. I would like to take the opportunity to speak today about our burgeoning program in which we are trying to interdigitate care across the worlds of neurology, cardiology, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, and vascular medicine.
The Institute is somewhat different from some of the other organizations throughout the country, insomuch as we are trying to build a multidisciplinary group with a larger breadth of constituents. We are including not just cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, not just vascular medicine specialists and vascular surgeons, but we are including stroke under our umbrella as well.
That is important for a couple of reasons. It is a recognition that you can't cleave the heart from the brain or from the legs. There is a single underlying biology that is the key to much of the pathophysiology. We are trying to think holistically when we take care of a patient.
We are also integrating research into all facets of what we are doing. To spark that research (pun intended), we have been using what we call "spark grants" to serve as carrots to get investigators thinking about how we might improve care across the research arena.
The word "spark" is not an acronym. We want to spark a fire, to lead with a carrot, to get investigators who might not be thinking of working together to work together across the spectrum of heart, vascular, and stroke research. The idea is not to fund the same old research, but to fund new types of investigation.
Right now, the National Institutes of Health are funding at a level of 5%-7% of grants across institutes. That is making people very conservative about funding studies that have already been done. We want to do the opposite. There is so much information coming out of the genomic revolution, such as new types of devices. It is time for us to invest in research and development, and that is what we are trying to do.
The Institute for Heart, Vascular and Stroke Care
Hello. I am Robert Gerszten, Director of Clinical and Translational Research for the new Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Heart, Vascular and Stroke Care. I would like to take the opportunity to speak today about our burgeoning program in which we are trying to interdigitate care across the worlds of neurology, cardiology, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, and vascular medicine.
The Institute is somewhat different from some of the other organizations throughout the country, insomuch as we are trying to build a multidisciplinary group with a larger breadth of constituents. We are including not just cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, not just vascular medicine specialists and vascular surgeons, but we are including stroke under our umbrella as well.
That is important for a couple of reasons. It is a recognition that you can't cleave the heart from the brain or from the legs. There is a single underlying biology that is the key to much of the pathophysiology. We are trying to think holistically when we take care of a patient.
We are also integrating research into all facets of what we are doing. To spark that research (pun intended), we have been using what we call "spark grants" to serve as carrots to get investigators thinking about how we might improve care across the research arena.
The word "spark" is not an acronym. We want to spark a fire, to lead with a carrot, to get investigators who might not be thinking of working together to work together across the spectrum of heart, vascular, and stroke research. The idea is not to fund the same old research, but to fund new types of investigation.
Right now, the National Institutes of Health are funding at a level of 5%-7% of grants across institutes. That is making people very conservative about funding studies that have already been done. We want to do the opposite. There is so much information coming out of the genomic revolution, such as new types of devices. It is time for us to invest in research and development, and that is what we are trying to do.
SHARE
