HOPKINS MEDICINE E-NEWS (June 2005)
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BEING BEST IS HARD WORK
It's always a thrill to be recognized as No. 1, as we were again this month in the ranking of NIH research funds to a medical school. Far more important than the ranking is the potential of this research to improve the health of people in our community and throughout the world. Each year we're awed at the superb quality of the faculty's research and their leadership in important areas of medicine and science.
Another important rating: Just this week came word that the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs has awarded Johns Hopkins full AAHRPP accreditation, recognizing our commitment to the protection of research participants. We are among the earliest organizations in the country to achieve this status.
Hard work and creativity were evident elsewhere at Hopkins, from the remarkable Children's Center team that cracked the $1 million barrier in the annual telethon on ABC2, to research that warns of the dangers of depression among heart attack patients. Hopkins' strong clinical reputation was cited as one of the contributing factors when the Johns Hopkins Health System received a welcome AA- bond ranking from Fitch Ratings.
Details on these and other developments are available in this issue, along with JHU President Bill Brody's provocative suggestion for accelerating medical discoveries through rapid dissemination of results via the Internet.
We welcome your suggestions and hope you enjoy reading these reports.
-- Edward D. Miller, M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty, CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine-- Ronald R. Peterson, President, Johns Hopkins Health System, The Johns Hopkins Hospital
THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE
HOPKINS MEDICAL SCHOOL AGAIN LEADS NATION IN NIH AWARDS
For 13th straight year, Hopkins wins more grants, awards and contracts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)- $450 million - than any other med school - an increase of $37 million despite NIH's reduced growth rate.
Citing Hopkins' "very strong" clinical reputation, improved operating results and a recently approved rate increase, Fitch Ratings assigns the Johns Hopkins Health System an AA- rating with stable outlook for debt in support of a major utilities project on the East Baltimore campus.
TELETHON BRINGS IN $1 MILLION FOR CHILDREN'S CENTERThe 22nd annual Children's Miracle Network Telethon, hosted by ABC2, meets its goal of a "million dollar day" for patient care at Hopkins' Children's Center. Since 1984, the telethon has raised more than $35 million.
SCIENCE REPORT
QUINN WARNS OF RISING HIV/AIDS RATES AMONG WOMEN
A Hopkins physician leading efforts to combat HIV calls for global strategies to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic. Women are now the most affected group, often the majority of HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries, says Thomas C. Quinn.
HOME TEST KITS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
Researchers say one-third of young women will use a free, easily available home test kit developed by Hopkins to learn if they are infected with Chlamydia trachomatis, the most common sexually transmitted disease (STD. Eighty-seven percent of the study group ordered the kit on the Internet.
DEPRESSION IN HEART ATTACK PATIENTS INCREASES CHANCES OF FUTURE PROBLEMS
Cardiologists find one in five heart attack patients experiences a major depression, is 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized within a year for heart problems and three times as likely to die from future heart conditions.
COMMENTARY
LINUX FOR BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE?
University President Bill Brody wonders if researchers should immediately make all their experimental data freely available on the Internet. This might rapidly increase the pace of discovery, he suggests.
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