Texas Medical Center NEWS


Vol. 22, No. 18		October 1, 2000

Feigin Appointed to NIH Clinical Center Board of Governors
Photograph

Dr. Ralph D. Feigin, president and CEO of Baylor College of Medicine, has been appointed to the Board of Governors of the National Institutes of Health's Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center.

The Clincial Center is the hospital of the National Institutes of Health, and provides patient care in support of the research programs conducted on-site at NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.

In 1996, Department of Health and Human Services' Secretary Donna Shalala established the Clinic Center's Board of Governors to oversee the management of the Clinical Center. The board is made up of physicians, scientists, and healthcare managers from some of the nation's top medical centers and from across the NIH's 25 separate institutes and centers (see more about NIH following).

Members of the board are chosen on the basis of their knowledge and expertise in health care governance and management, operational aspects of academic health care centers, and clinical research.

In announcing the appointment of Dr. Feigin to the Clinical Center's board of governors, Dr. Stephen C. Schimpff, board chair, said, "Dr. Feigin has the clinical and administrative expertise to guide the Clinical Center as it continues to expand the breadth of scientific discoveries made since its inception 47 years ago."

The board of governors advises, consults with and makes recommendations to the director of the NIH, and to the director of the Clinical Center, on all matters related to the operations of the Clinical Center, its budget, and strategic and annual operating plans. The board also serves as the governing body for the Clinical Center's clinical activities.

The board consists of 15 members appointed by the director of the NIH. Of the 15 members, eight are non-NIH employees and seven are NIH employees (the majority are NIH institute directors). Members may serve up to five years, and their appointments must be renewed by the board every two years. The board meets three times each year in Bethesda. Non-NIH members represent a variety of academic medicine institutions or healthcare-related companies including Emory University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Maryland Medical System, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, North General Hospital in New York City, Partners HealthCare System, Inc., and McKinsey & Company.

In addition to his role as president and CEO of Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Feign is chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, physician in chief at Texas Children's Hospital, and physician in chief of pediatrics at Ben Taub General Hospital and chief of pediatric services at Methodist Hospital.

About the National Institutes of Health

The NIH is comprised of 25 separate institutes and centers, each of which is devoted to researching a specific disease or condition. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NIH is composed of extramural and intramural programs. Extramural programs are those research projects that are conducted by scientists and researchers at academic institutions around the country and funded with NIH grants. Ninety percent of the NIH budget is devoted to extramural programs. The NIH intramural program is composed of the scientists and support services who conduct research on the Bethesda campus. Fifteen of the NIH's institutes have active clinical research programs at the Clinical Center, and clinical investigators from the 15 institutes comprise the majority of the physician staff for the Clinical Center. Extramural and intramural investigators collaborate on various projects.

The NIH campus covers about 320 acres with over 75 buildings. The Clinical Center is the largest building on the campus. The building has aged substantially since its construction in 1953, and NIH is currently building a new 250-bed hospital with a capacity of 75 day hospital stations. Slated for completion in 2002, the new Clinical Research Center will be named in honor of Senator Mark O. Hatfield, who served for 30 years as a senator from Oregon and for eight as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, all the while championing for clinical research.

Because Clinical Center patients volunteer as research subjects, they are not charged for the care they receive. Patients can be self-referred to the Clinical Center or referred for enrollment into a protocol by the patient's primary care physician or from other hospitals.

The Clinical Center also serves as a resource for training clinical investigators, many of whom advance to distinguished careers as leaders in academic medicine. Most of the nation's medical schools are led by people who spent time at the Clinical Center.

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