To help improve health outcomes of patients who require emergency care, NIH has created a new Office of Emergency Care Research (OCER). The office is a focal point for basic, clinical and translational emergency care research and training across NIH.
“NIH has supported research to advance emergency care for years, however, we now have a single office to coordinate and foster activities in this arena,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D, PhD. “The new NIH office will focus on speeding diagnosis and improving care for the full spectrum of conditions that require emergency treatment.”
Although OECR will not fund grants, it will foster innovation, improvement in emergency care, and training future researchers in this field by:
- Coordinating funding opportunities that involve multiple NIH institutes and centers
- Working closely with the NIH Emergency Care Research Working Group with representatives from most NIH institutes and centers
- Organizing scientific meetings to identify new research and training opportunities in the emergency setting
- Catalyzing the development of new funding opportunities
- Informing investigators about funding opportunities in their areas of interest
- Fostering career development for trainees in emergency care research
- Representing NIH in government-wide efforts to improve the nation’s emergency care system
OCER is housed in NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences at www.nigms.nih.gov. While a search is being conducted for a permanent director, OECR is being led on an acting basis by Walter J. Koroshetz M.D, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
