Marie Freire, PhD
President
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Md.
Q: What will be your first priority in your new role as president of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health?
A: One of my first priorities will be to enhance interaction between the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) and the National Institutes of Health. Enriching this relationship will increase our effectiveness and impact. I am also looking forward to working closely with the FNIH staff and Board of Directors; they are a remarkable and dedicated group of people that will help FNIH build upon its programmatic initiatives and many successes.
Q: What is the biggest healthcare challenge currently facing the nation?
A: There are many healthcare challenges. As a society, we must ensure that we have the human, financial and technical resources necessary to prevent and treat disease and disability. Critical to facing our healthcare challenges is the need for a public that is educated about the importance of understanding the basic biology of disease so that we can treat the root cause of the problem, not simply its symptoms.
Q: How can the nation best improve the quality of healthcare while simultaneously controlling costs?
A: By supporting and promoting broad innovation. By this I mean innovation in basic, translational and clinical research, in novel information and communications infrastructure, in training and, of course, in financing mechanisms, among others. For example, FNIH has a ground-breaking Phase II breast cancer trial, I-SPY2, which uses specific genetic signatures, known as biomarkers, in tumors of patients. These biomarkers help identify individuals who are most likely to benefit from testing of a new breast cancer drug. I-SPY2 can also test multiple new drugs in significantly less time and with fewer trial participants than traditional clinical trials, which dramatically lowers development costs. Another example of innovative strategies that will improve quality and care is the NIH Medical Research Scholars Program supported by FNIH. The year-long, highly competitive research fellowship trains medical, dental and veterinary students to transform their own clinical observations into research hypotheses which will drive improvement in patient care.
Interviewed by Rene Letourneau, Editor.