News Release

Friday, November 7, 2008

NIH Course on Clinical Research to Be Presented in China

Clinician-scientists from the National Institutes of Health will take the NIH Clinical Center’s course "Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Clinical Research" to Beijing Nov. 10-15.

This is the first time an adaptation of the course, offered at the Clinical Center annually since 1995, has been presented live outside the NIH in Bethesda, Md. "More than 7,000 participants have enrolled in this course since its inception and it has been teleconferenced to 24 locations in the U.S. and to five countries," noted John I. Gallin, M.D., course director and director of the Clinical Center, the clinical research hospital at NIH "We are honored our colleagues in China offered this opportunity to broaden education and training in the conduct of clinical and translational medical research."

The course will cover clinical research design, ethics, methodology, and data analysis. "Better health and health care for the future depend on successful and productive clinical research today," said Dr. Gallin. "Medical research involving human subjects must be safe, ethical, and efficient. This course provides a strong foundation in these basics."

Live lectures will include: "Clinical Research Project Design and Guidelines," presented by Laura Lee Johnson, Ph.D., NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine; "Institutional Review Boards and Integrity in Research," Jerry A. Menikoff, M.D., J.D., director, Office for Human Research Protections, Office of Public Health and Science, Office of the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services; "Clinical Case Studies and Meta-Analysis," Charles Natanson, M.D., Critical Care Medicine Department, NIH Clinical Center; "Clinical Research Methodology," Dennis O. Dixon, Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and "Ethical Principles and Bioethical Questions," Reidar Lie, M.D., Ph.D., Bioethics Department, NIH Clinical Center.

The NIH Clinical Center (CC) is the clinical research hospital for the National Institutes of Health. Through clinical research, physician-investigators translate laboratory discoveries into better treatments, therapies and interventions to improve the nation's health. For more information, visit http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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