Digestive Diseases News
Summer 2006

NIDDK News

NIDDK, Digestive Diseases Groups Seek to Collaborate

Digestive diseases organizations gathered at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on June 5 to discuss how to collaborate with each other and with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

Representatives from more than a dozen patient and health care provider organizations, known as the coordinating panel, outlined their agendas, which ranged from launching public awareness campaigns to legislative advocacy. In return, they got a rundown of recent activities sponsored by the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC), the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition (DDN), and the NIDDK:

Public Inquiries: In calendar year 2005, the NDDIC responded to more than 8,000 inquiries from health care professionals, patients, and other members of the public.

Publications: The NDDIC distributed Action Plan for Liver Disease Research during 2005 and redesigned its newsletter, Digestive Diseases News. The most popular publications were “easy-to-read” booklets––both online and hard-copy versions. Online publications are updated at least every 18 to 24 months. The NDDIC publications are not copyrighted.

Public Awareness: The NDDIC is developing a series of one-page fact sheets to distribute at health fairs and family reunions to increase disease awareness. The NDDIC also began an awareness campaign to educate health care professionals and the public about celiac disease (see Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign).

Database: The NIDDK developed a database for general and professional audiences—the NIDDK Reference Collection—to host on its own platform. The database will expand the resources of the Combined Health Information Database and include “fugitive literature” not captured by the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature or Medline.

Research Overview

Gastrointestinal research, with about 440 extramural research grants costing $145 million, is the DDN’s largest extramural research area, followed by liver research, with about 300 grants totaling $100 million. With about 175 grants totaling $80 million, obesity research is growing, while nutrition research remains static with about 90 grants worth an estimated $30 million.

Research planning occurs through the Digestive Diseases Interagency Coordinating Committee, the agenda laid out in the Action Plan for Liver Disease Research, and the National Commission on Digestive Diseases (see agenda).

The coordinating panel will meet again next year, possibly in May to coincide with Digestive Disease Week in Washington, D.C.

Facts About Inquiry Responses:
June 2005 to April 2006

Clearinghouse Handles More Than 7,700 Inquiries

The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse responded to 7,726 inquiries between June 1, 2005, and April 30, 2006. Most of the inquiries continue to come from patients and their families. However, the number of inquiries from health care professionals increased 10 percentage points from last year to 21 percent, while the number of inquiries from reporters, writers, teachers, and other specific public categories fell to 10 percent from 23 percent.

Briggs to Leave NIDDK

Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases (KUH) at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), has accepted a position at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, MD.

During her 9-year tenure, Briggs was a strong, active leader for the KUH, the NIDDK, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She established the National Kidney Disease Education Program, advocated rigorously and effectively for KUH programs, and recruited top-notch scientists to guide education and research programs. She also was actively involved in several trans-NIH activities, such as the Zebrafish Committee and the Roadmap NIH-RAID program. Briggs, whose last day at the NIDDK was August 18, will become a senior scientific officer in HHMI’s science department, where she will be involved in leading the HHMI Investigator Program.

Robert A. Star, M.D., is serving as the KUH acting director. Star, a nephrologist, has been a senior scientific adviser for translational biology in the KUH division since 1999. He also served as senior adviser for clinical research in the NIH Office of Science Policy and Planning and has been actively engaged in NIH Roadmap initiatives for “Re-Engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise.”

“Not only has he been a leader at NIDDK, he’s been a leader across NIH.”

Elias Zerhouni, M.D. Director of the National Institutes of Health

Spiegel Leaves Post as NIDDK Director to Become Dean at Einstein

Allen Spiegel, M.D., has stepped down as director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) after a career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that spanned more than 3 decades, including more than 6 years at the helm of the NIDDK. Spiegel became dean of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx on June 1.

“For nearly 33 years, aside from my family, the NIH has been the most important thing in my life,” said Spiegel. “This has been an extraordinary experience for me, and a privilege. But I really feel that change is appropriate. It is time for a new and different challenge.”

Griffin Rodgers, M.D., the NIDDK’s deputy director, is serving as the Institute’s acting director.

Wide-Reaching Impact

Spiegel’s impact reached beyond the NIDDK. He tackled cross-Institute challenges at the NIH and earned the respect of other directors and the confidence of NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D.

“All of us here at the NIH are sad, and we’ll miss him,” said Zerhouni, who lauded Spiegel’s contributions to the NIH during the NIDDK Advisory Council Meeting in February. “Not only has he been a leader at the NIDDK, he has been a leader across the NIH. ”

Spiegel, who came to the NIDDK in 1973, quickly rose through the ranks to become a senior investigator, followed by chief of the Molecular Pathophysiology Section, and then chief of the Metabolic Diseases Branch. He served as the NIDDK’s scientific director for 9 years before becoming NIDDK director in 1999.

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NIH Publication No. 06–4552
August 2006