The effort to establish a separate imaging institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) could get a boost after President Bill Clinton announced that he will be asking Congress for a substantial increase in fiscal 2001 funding for research at the agency. The president's budget will propose about $19 billion for biomedical research at the NIH, up $1 billion from the level this year. Clinton's remarks came during a January 21 speech to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA.
Whether the fiscal windfall will benefit imaging is still unclear, as details of the administration's budget will not be released until coming weeks, following Congress' return to session on January 24. While it is unlikely that the administration will make specific mention of funding for a separate National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Engineering, under consideration now by Congress, a general increase in support for NIH research should benefit the effort.
"To the extent that an increase in the budget proposal gives Congress more room to work, that helps us," said Edward C. Nagy, executive director of the Academy of Radiology Research, a professional organization dedicated to the establishment of an imaging institute at NIH.
The academy has been spearheading the effort to get a separate imaging institute established at the NIH. Radiology advocates believe a concentrated focus on basic imaging research is needed in order for the specialty to make quantum leaps in technological development. The effort has run into some resistance from NIH officials, however, who believe that imaging research is best conducted at existing NIH facilities.
By Roger Lindahl
AuntMinnie.com contributing writer
January 25, 2000
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