The FIC Advisory Board met via video-teleconference, at 12:02 p.m., Dr. Roger Glass, Chair, presiding.
Present
- Roger I. Glass, M.D., Ph.D., Director, FIC
Chair
- Myron S. Cohen, M.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- James W. Curran, M.D., M.P.H., Emory University
- Carol Dahl, Ph.d., Lemelson Foundation
- Gregory Germino, M.D., National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases
(Ex-officio)
- Karen Goraleski, M.S.W., American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- Chandy John, M.D., Indiana University School of Medicine
- Gbenga Ogedegbe, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P., New York University School of Medicine
- Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D., Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics
- Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University School of Medicine
- Judith N. Wasserheit, M.D., M.P.H., University of Washington
- Mary Wilson, M.D., San Francisco School of Medicine
Also Present
- Mas Essex, D.V.M., Ph.D., Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership
- Wafaie Fawzi, M.P.H., M.S., Dr.PH., Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Wondwossen Gebreyes, D.V.M., Ph.D., The Ohio State University
- Chelsea Hansen, FIC
- Farid Jarrous, FIC
- Flora Katz, Ph.D., FIC
- Peter Kilmarx, M.D., FIC
- Marya Levintova, Ph.D., FIC
- Maureen Lichtveld, M.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh
- Amit Mistry, Ph.D., FIC
- Sikhulile Moyo, Ph.D., Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership
- Rob Murphy, M.D., Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
- Loyce Pace, M.P.H., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Amanda Perofsky, Ph.D., FIC
- Josh Rosenthal, Ph.D., FIC
- Christine Sizemore, Ph.D., FIC
- Kaiyuan Sun, Ph.D., FIC
- Cecile Viboud, Ph.D., FIC
- Kristen Weymouth, FIC
Director's Update
Dr. Glass opened the meeting at 12:02 p.m., welcomed those in attendance, and introduced the day’s presenters and guests before providing updates on the FIC.
Dr. Bonnie Stanton, a former member of the FIC Board, recently passed away; Dr. Glass remarked on her work in bringing the study of the social determinants of health to the forefront of her role as a medical leader. Dr. Vivian Pinn was recently honored with Research!America’s Outstanding Achievement in Publica Health Award. Dr. Collins has stepped down as the Director of NIH and Dr. Glass reviewed Dr. Collin’s contributions to global health research, including the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI), Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa) program, Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative, the Brain Initiative, and the African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI). Dr. Collins will continue collaborations with FIC as well as his research in the National Human Genome Research Institute. Ann Puderbaugh, FIC’s director of communications for the past 12 years, will be retiring at the end of March and Dr. Glass credited Ms. Puderbaugh’s extensive communications efforts with restoring and subsequently increasing FIC’s budget after it was threatened to be eliminated several years prior; those efforts helped bring FIC’s newsletter, Global Health Matters, to the forefront of global
Dr. Glass gave an overview of FIC and NIH activities focusing on inclusivity and diversity in the workforce. Dexter Collins, FIC’s Executive Officer, and other FIC staff members have been working with trans-NIH committees to review best-practices to expand scientific and medical equity, diversity, and inclusion both internally and externally, domestically and internationally. Other notable programs include the NIH Common Fund's Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative to support innovative, translational research projects to prevent, reduce, or eliminate health disparities and advance health equity. Dr. Glass discussed FIC’s role in championing this year’s Combined Federal Charities (CFC) program for NIH, remarking that the FIC exceeded its goal by approximately 400%.
Dr. Glass discussed the impact of the pandemic on the scientific and medical communities, particularly around vaccine skepticism, health disparities, access inequities, and asked how FIC could bring its resources, assets, experiences, and partnerships to bear on these issues with maximal efficacy. He briefly mentioned how FIC’s divisions are contributing to this work, including: the Division of International Training and Research (DITR) trainees and grantees have pivoted their infectious disease, ethics, and data science/innovation research to provide pandemic response leadership; the Division of International Epidemiology and Population Studies (DIEPS) has contributed to pandemic response efforts through modeling, policy development, genomic surveillance, and biosecurity training; the Division of International Relations (DIR) has continued to expand its international and federal partnerships; and the Division of International Science Policy, Planning and Evaluation (DISPPE) and Center for Global Health Studies (CGHS) are exploring new opportunities for implementation and innovation in advancing health research in humanitarian crises, and has continued to enhance its administrative capacity. Dr. Glass and Dr. Kilmarx recently authored an article on the importance of investments in capacity building, particularly around pandemic preparedness and Dr. Glass remarked on notable FIC trainees and grantees who are current leaders in this field, including: John Nkengasong is the current director of the African CDC, Glenda Gray sits on the South African Medical Research Council, Soumya Swaminathan is a current WHO advisor on the pandemic response, Zunyou Wu is chief epidemiologist in Beijing, Jean Nachega is working with the AFREhealth group.
Dr. Glass discussed his appearance in a session of the U.N. General Assembly alongside the ABCHealth Foundation and the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa to solicit private investments into both pandemic response efforts and broader support of science and technology ecosystems in Africa. In November, Dr. Glass joined Dr. Michelle Williams at a session of the Gates Grand Challenges annual meeting to discuss grants to individuals in the innovation space, particularly around data science. In December, Dr. Glass visited Rwanda for a meeting of the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing, which included important relationship-building opportunities.
Staff Updates
Dr. Kilmarx, FIC Deputy Director, discussed his work with ESSENCE: a funding forum under the WHO TDR Secretariate that develops metrics and frameworks for funders to utilize data on health research capacities in order to develop not only more health capacity, but also equity. Dr. Mistry (CGHS) discussed hosting the virtual Global Forum on Humanitarian Health Research, which centered around case-study presentations and facilitating mentoring opportunities. Dr. Sizemore provided an overview of FIC’s Division of International Relations (DIR) which supports not only FIC, but almost all of the Institutes and Centers at NIH and serves as a point of contact for both federal and international funding partners.
Ms. Hansen (DIEPS) reviewed the impact of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and influenza around the world, discussed the importance of updating U.S. mortality estimates in the context of the current pandemic, and described the efforts taken to update that data through time-series models for weekly mortality of respiratory diseases from 1999 to 2018, which allowed mortality estimates for each disease by age group. Ms. Hansen discussed some of the data shifts this research revealed, including increasing mortality burdens on younger populations. Dr. Perofsky (DIEPS) reviewed FIC work done in partnership with South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases to study the direct and indirect impact of the pandemic on healthcare in South Africa. Dr. Sun (DIEPS) outlined a study on immunity and epidemiology that focused on infection rates alongside both variant waves and vaccination rates.
Dr. Viboud (DIEPS) presented on COVID-19 projections in the United States, which combine projections from different models to generate more robust estimates that can be used to inform better public health and policy decision-making. The projections cover the next six months at the state and national level for cases, hospitalizations, and deaths by accounting for a variety of epidemiological factors. The projections have tracked closely to real outcomes so far, but Dr. Viboud stressed the significant number of unknowns that continue to impact these efforts and discussed her team’s collaborations to improve and disseminate this data to federal partners.
Dr. Glass announced the 20th Anniversary of the fellows and scholars program will take place in the summer of 2023 and provide an exciting opportunity for mentoring and networking among the program’s participants over the last 20 years. The next FIC Advisory Board meeting will take place virtually on June 6-7, 2022.
NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative (CCH)
Dr. John Rosenthal
Dr. Glass introduced Dr. Rosenthal, a DIEPS senior scientist and FIC’s climate change research lead, to present on the ongoing and anticipated work on and impacts of climate change. NIEHS, FIC, and NIAID have been the largest contributors to the NIH’s work on the health impacts of climate change. Dr. Rosenthal outlined the work that has been done to revive the CCH Working Group and Executive Committee and to develop a strategic framework to direct the interdisciplinary research that is solutions-oriented and community-focused; the CCH represents an NIH-wide activity that includes members from the Institutes of Minority Health, Mental Health, Nursing, Child Health, and Heart-Lung-Blood Diseases. Dr. Rosenthal discussed the importance of including the communities that are most impacted by climate change in these research and capacity-building efforts.
Dr. Glass detailed the comprehensive impacts of climate change on physical, social, and mental health, and described how observational studies, randomized-control trials, implementation studies, and mechanistic studies, would play a role in the CCH’s work, which is meant to catalyze investment across the NIH in this area.
Journey from AIDS scholar to work on the Omicron SARS-COV-2 variant of concern in Botswana
Dr. Sikhulile Moyo
Dr. Glass introduced Dr. Moyo, the Director of the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, who presented on the impact of his time as a FIC fellow on his work tracking infections, studying serological and genomic methodologies, evaluating drug toxicity, studying biostatistics, and, most recently, sequencing the Omicron variant. Dr. Moyo reviewed his previous projects and positions, before describing his current work alongside other FIC alumni in next generation sequencing techniques and mentoring another generation of colleagues in the global health field.
Dr. Moyo discussed his utilization of an FIC supplement to assess the impact and severity of COVID-19 in people with HIV and to study the key mutations and signatures that modulate disease outcomes via co-infections. He described the genomic surveillance system the institute established in partnership with the Botswana Ministry of Health and outlined how a systematic surveillance approach positioned his colleagues well to observe clusters of mutations that were eventually classified as a variant in the pandemic. Dr. Moyo detailed the awards and honors his group has received from political and social leaders for their contributions to both HIV/AIDS and COVID responses, remarked on the importance of sharing data in order to create meaningful scientific and health outcomes, and the value of the alumni network that the FIC has fostered. He discussed how his group is working to pivot their discoveries and strategies in HIV/AIDS research towards other diseases, including cancer, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and the health impacts of climate change.
Responding to a question from Dr. Lichtveld, Dr. Moyo shared his experience that scientific communication between colleagues is an essential component of good science. Dr. Moyo and Ms. Goraleski continued, sharing the importance of also translating scientific discoveries so that leaders can form good policy from the research being done and so that the public may understand better the nuances and importance of the lessons being learned.
Update from the Office of Global Affairs, HHS
Ms. Loyce Pace
Dr. Glass introduced Ms. Pace, who heads the Office of Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), who presented on her agency’s role in facilitating the Department’s work internationally and how those contributions might be expanded. Ms. Pace discussed the administration’s commitment to global health and remarked on how investments in research through institutes like FIC have impacts far beyond the magnitude of the initial investment—the case is particularly poignant with FIC, where alumni often find themselves in positions of leadership later on in their careers and play an integral part forming international networks. Ms. Pace discussed the importance of federal and international partnerships to develop well-founded policies and described some concrete ways her office drives the development of policy, particularly in partnership with the WHO and regional partnerships. Some upcoming projects include preparations for future possible pandemics and discrete amendments to the International Health Regulations. While the COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant focal point, the Office of Global Affairs works to remain aligned with the NIH’s priorities and preparations for possible future outbreaks in various regions of the world and has worked to take similar steps to address health equity.
Ms. Goraleski requested additional information on how scientists and facilitators like Ms. Pace could better advocate for scientific funding by translating discoveries into meaningful policy language. Responding to a question from Dr. Gebreyes, Ms. Pace discussed her office’s partnerships and initiatives around issues like antimicrobial resistance, as part of their global health and bio-security work.
Program Concepts, Division of International Training and Research (DITR)
NIMH-RFA: Integrating Mental Health Care into Health Care Systems in Low- and Middle- Income Countries
Dr. Marya Levintova
Dr. Levintova presented to the Advisory Board on an RFA program concept that would support R01 mechanism applications for up to five years of funding to integrate mental health services into primary care systems in low- and middle-income countries. The proposal will be published in the NIH Guide in short order and Dr. Glass agreed to distribute the proposal among the Board members at that time. Dr. Katz discussed the possibility of utilizing funding appropriated for health disparity research for this project.
Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities Cluster
Dr. Flora Katz
Dr. Katz presented to the Advisory Board on utilizing anticipated appropriations increases to increase the diversity of the scientific workforce in order to prioritize the study of diverse communities and the health disparities they face. Health disparities are defined as preventable differences in health status and outcomes that adversely affect certain populations; disparities research is typically framed in terms of domestic socio-economic groups and data shows that members of those communities who become scientists tend to return to their communities and research the issues that affect them. The proposal would fund a slate of fellowships to focus on the social determinants of health and health disparities that would include a yearly set-aside to increase the number of opportunities in subsequent years. Dr. Katz reviewed some specific fellowships and programs that would benefit from this proposal but noted that the overall goal is to characterize and reduce health disparities with an emphasis on interventions and building a diverse global health research community. Responding to questions from the Board, Dr. Katz discussed the logistics of applying for funding through this program proposal. Dr. Glass discussed the importance of investing in researchers as a way to expand resources for addressing global health disparities—particularly researchers from diverse backgrounds who can form diverse networks of collaborators around the world.
Closing Remarks
Dr. Glass discussed upcoming efforts to connect with FIC fellows from the last two decades to gather information on maintaining and improving training programs on global health research and health disparities. Ms. Goraleski discussed the importance of also acquiring lessons learned from FIC training programs in order to adapt and improve the programs. Dr. Glass and Dr. Ogedegbe discussed the importance of capitalizing on current momentum in capacity-building, global health equity, and pandemic preparedness. Dr. Glass concluded with remarks on the importance of sowing curiosity among the next generation of researchers to harvest the ingenuity of their developments and discussed the important role FIC plays and will continue to play in this process.
Dr. Glass adjourned the meeting at 2:54 p.m.