COMMENTARY: Research Boosts Health, Economy

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Medical research is a catalyst for new treatments that help patients and an economic engine that creates jobs and opportunity.

Furthermore, research allows us to understand what factors contribute to disease as well as health so we can save money by reducing health care expenditures.

Congressional action to reduce the federal budget deficit could result in multibillion dollar cuts in medical research - cuts to research targeting cancer, child health, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and other major health threats.

This is medical research taking place in Northwest Arkansas and across the state.

Arkansas research institutions such as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute and others across the nation are facing the prospect of severe budget cutbacks. Cuts will inevitably slow progress and delay discoveries needed for improving health and health care.

A 2011 study from the Association of American Medical Colleges showed federal- and state-funded research at medical schools and teaching hospitals added about $45 billion to the U.S.

economy and supported almost one in every 500 jobs in the United States in 2009.

In Arkansas, federaland state-funded research added $247.6 million to the economy that year, supporting 1,651 jobs.

One big example is the National Children’s Study - proposed to be the largest ever investigation of child health. The Benton County Study Location is the only study location in Arkansas for the National Institutes of Health project, which in 2008 awarded a $14.4 million contract to UAMS researchers and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute to facilitate involvement in the survey.

The study will follow a representative sample of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21. Volunteers are recruited throughout the United States: from rural, urban and suburban areas; from all income and educational levels; and from all racial groups. The study will investigate factors influencing the development of such conditions as autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, birth defects, diabetes, asthma and obesity.

Investigators from Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute and UAMS already have enrolled more than 150 women locally in the study thatwill follow them and their children. The researchers are working hand-in-hand with the Arkansas Department of Health, the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Benton County obstetricians and pediatricians and Benton County business leaders and community agencies.

Those research fi gures do not include the substantial commercial application of biomedical discoveries at institutions such as UAMS.

The UAMS business incubator, BioVentures, has launched 50 companies with a current annual payroll of $26.5 million. They include InterveXion Therapeutics, which is developing drug therapies for PCP and methamphetamine abuse, and Myeloma Health, which offers genetic testing for the diagnosis and management of multiple myeloma.

The beginnings of InterveXion include a collaboration between a pharmacology researcher at UAMS and a biologist at the University of Arkansas.

Federal research funding fosters these kinds of partnerships that, in this case, could one day lead to new treatments for drug addiction.

Federal research funding creates summer opportunities for students that could help steer them toward a career in health care. Undergraduate and graduate students from across Arkansas get the chance to work in labs conducting biomedical research.

National polls also showan overwhelming majority of Americans support funding for health research programs, yet deep cuts to federal research funding are being contemplated.

Dismal rankings in numerous categories related to health status, incidence of disease and access to care place Arkansas among the least healthy states.

The state ranks 45th of 50 in the incidence of stroke, 43rd in obesity, 45th in cardiovascular deaths, 45th in cancer deaths and 43rd in infant mortality.

While we are treating patients with those diseases and conditions, we need scientists working to find new methods for treatment and prevention.

Medical research is a down payment on a better future;

it shouldn’t fall victim to severe budget cuts.

There’s no doubt the U.S.

economy has suff ered its own poor health in recent years, and interventions are needed to restore jobs and reduce the federal deficit. But investments in biomedical research actually have boosted the national economy and had a powerful impact in Arkansas.

All Arkansans have a stake in ensuring sustained investment in biomedical research. The looming cuts in the NIH budget jeopardize the vital momentum in research here in Arkansas and around the nation.

DR. PETER O. KOHLER IS VICE CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS FOR MEDICAL SCIENCES NORTHWEST.