clinical trials

Teen Travels from Jamaica to the NIH for Aplastic Anemia Treatment

Reblogged from The Children's Inn: Family Stories.

Sixteen-year-old Howayne and his Aunt Michelle

Sixteen-year old Howayne McGregor, from Jamaica, suddenly collapsed on his routine walk to school and was rushed to the nearest hospital. After sending his lab results to Dr. Neal Young at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Howayne received the diagnosis of aplastic anemia, a rare but serious blood disorder in which the body’s bone marrow doesn’t make enough new blood cells.

A New Life for Lifesaving Data

Data sharing (e.g., via publication, collaboration, and repositories) ensures that data are used and published more broadly than they otherwise would be, promoting more rapid translation into biomedical and scientific advances, thus allowing American taxpayers who fund our research the opportunity to benefit more fully from our work.

Doctor Joan Han and patient, NIH Clinical Center

Inspirations in Science and Medicine

You never know when inspiration will strike. I still remember the day that Dr. Francis Collins came to visit my high school genetics class. At that time, Dr. Collins was the director of the Human Genome Project, an international research program aimed at uncovering the genetic building blocks essential for human life. Imagine our recent excitement when Dr. Collins, now Director of the NIH, specially attended a reception for clinical fellows at the Clinical Center.

NIH Clinical Fellows Gathering, Collins, Gallin

NIH Medical Oncology Fellow at a Glance

When I was growing up, my grandfather would visit and try to teach me thermodynamics. At the time, I thought that this was normal conversation between a grandfather and a little girl. It was several years before I realized that he was an eminent scientist in his home country. My grandfather would always ask me, “How is your science?”

Victoria Chiou at AACR

Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve—1970s Style

This dapper bee from 1977 advertised an NHLBI-sponsored multicenter, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled trial designed to test the benefits of beta-blockers for people who had had a heart attack. The study was called the Beta-Blocker Heart Attack Trial (BHAT). Ah, you say—that’s why the bee in the hat!

Yellow pin with illustration of a bee holding a flower and wearing a top-hat with the word “BHAT”