Community Corner

Huntington Hospital Wins State Funds

State program boosts research efforts at LI hospitals.

Several Long Island hospitals have been awarded state funds to help train physician researchers working on clinical projects.

The projects range from kidney disease genomics to malaria prevention.  Huntington Hospital's research focuses on improving the quality of care for vulnerable elderly patients, Renee Pekmezaris the project director.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office announced the awards Wednesday.  The awards "help position New York’s hospitals as international leaders in biomedicine, attracting top physicians and medical students and elevating our state’s standing for future federal research funds. But most of all, this program enhances the quality of health care statewide which will help create healthier and stronger communities for years to come," Cuomo said.

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ECRIP provides funding to teaching hospitals to train physicians in clinical research, with the awards helping to cover the costs of physicians in training fellowships and the associated costs to conduct clinical research. The goal is to prepare participants so that they can apply for federal research funding.

These awards will help train more than 100 physician researchers over the next two years. 

“New York State, once the leader in federal research funding, has not been able to secure as much NIH funding as it has over the past three decades and now ranks third in the nation in securing NIH funding,” said State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah. “ECRIP funds are a critically important vehicle to reverse this trend. This newly designed program will help increase the number of clinical investigators and better position New York institutions to compete for federal research dollars.” 

ECRIP provides funding for research of particular importance to an institution's service area. The program provides individual and center awards.

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Individual awards will give 19 institutions $150,000 each. ECRIP fellows will be trained in diverse research fields, including: breast cancer detection; newborn genetic diseases; spinal cord injury; cardiovascular disease; nanoscale research for surgical implantation; HIV prevention; alcohol dependency; pain management; and patient centered medical homes. 

Center awards give 12 institutions $1,197,766 each to train a team of at least five fellows per institution. Center awards are designed to promote development of clinician researchers while providing seed funding for new federal center grants by requiring teaching hospitals to form research teams around themes.

All 12 institutions have each committed at least $200,000 in direct matching funds for their projects. 

ECRIP was created by the New York State Council on Graduate Medical Education and has supported the training of physicians in clinical research since 2002. 

Thomas McGinn, M.D., chairman of medicine, North Shore-LIJ Health System said, “Training our best and brightest clinicians in patient-centered medical research and care, at all of our hospitals, is a priority of the health system. Promoting the development of clinician researchers while also providing seed funding for new federal center-type research projects is a win for everyone - doctors, patients and hospitals.” 

Click here for a full list of awardees


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