By a vote of 388 yes to 13 no votes, the House of Representatives yesterday
passed H.R. 5006, the FY 2005 Departments of Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill. This
bill provides funding for the National Institutes of Health, within
which is the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
(NIBIB).
Under this bill, which has not yet been acted upon by the Senate, NIBIB
funding would increase by 3.7%, or $10,518,000, from $287.1 million
to $297.7 million. This figure is the same as that requested by the
Bush Administration (see http://www.aip.org/fyi/2004/018.html.)
Total NIH funding in the bill is the same as what the administration
requested. (Note that the projected NIBIB increase calculated by the
committee and the administration somewhat differ.)
Accompanying this bill is House Report 108-636 which contains the committee's
non-binding language regarding NIBIB. The full text of this language
follows; note that the committee states, "The important innovations
envisioned in the imaging and biomedical engineering agenda are unlikely
to be achieved in the foreseeable future, however, unless additional
resources are available to NIBIB. . . . The Committee urges the Director
of NIH to give NIBIB special attention so that it can achieve its potential."
"The Committee provides $297,647,000 for the National
Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), which
is $10,518,000 above the fiscal year 2004 comparable level and the
same as the budget request.
"Mission.--The mission of the Institute is to improve
health by promoting fundamental discoveries, design and development,
and translation and assessment of technological capabilities in biomedical
imaging and bioengineering, enabled by relevant areas of information
science, physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, and computer
sciences.
"NIBIB growth.--The Committee recognizes the important
role of new imaging and engineering techniques and technologies both
in improving health care delivery and enabling progress in biomedical
research. The Committee believes that NIBIB has worked effectively
with the extramural community to identify important research opportunities
and challenges. Through workshops and conferences NIBIB has produced
an ambitious research agenda that will produce new technologies with
clinical applications to a broad spectrum of biological processes,
disorders, and diseases and across organ systems as well as facilitate
advanced research in virtually all other NIH institutes. The NIH leadership
has recognized the central role of imaging by including the development
of molecular imaging and molecular libraries as an initiative in the
NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. The important innovations envisioned
in the imaging and biomedical engineering agenda are unlikely to be
achieved in the foreseeable future, however, unless additional resources
are available to NIBIB. Because NIBIB was created at the end of the
congressional effort to double the NIH budget over five years, it
faces special challenges as funding growth slows. The Committee urges
the Director of NIH to give NIBIB special attention so that it can
achieve its potential. For that reason, the Committee requests NIH
to develop a five-year professional judgment budget that would enable
NIBIB to grow at an appropriate rate. The Committee expects to receive
the report by May 1, 2005.
"Bone imaging.--The Committee encourages NIBIB to make
new bone imaging techniques a primary focus, speeding the development
of new imaging modalities that better capture bone quality, including
bone micro- and macro-architecture, quantification of bone mass and
crystalline composition, which are necessary to develop diagnostic
and treatment therapies for patients with metabolic bone diseases.
The Committee encourages NIBIB to participate actively in trans-NIH
initiatives that address these priorities.
"Organ imaging.--The Committee encourages the Institute
to focus on improved tissue and organ imaging technologies and on
the growth of artificial tissues. Progress in these fields will have
multiple benefits, including addressing issues such as invasive diagnostic
tests now required for liver diseases and the need to address the
shortage of livers and other organs available for transplantation.
"Diabetic retinopathy.--The Committee encourages NIBIB
to collaborate with NEI on the development and application of scanning
technologies that will be affordable and accessible to allow for early
detection of diabetic retinopathy."
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