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(Circulation. 1995;91:2501.)
© 1995 American Heart Association, Inc.

Articles

The Appropriations Hearings

Delivering Our Message

Claude Lenfant, MD

From the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md.

	Introduction

 
The recent congressional appropriations hearings on the fiscal year 1996 budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided a good opportunity to reflect on the status of biomedical research in general and the goals and achievements of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in particular. Facing appropriations subcommittees with many new members, new leadership, and an ambitious agenda for the American people, how could we best convey the importance and promise of the work that we do? We have gained so much mastery over cardiovascular, lung, and blood diseases that their significance and urgency sometimes get lost in the face of other threats to the public health. Indeed, the first question asked of me by the House Appropriations Subcommittee was: Is your institute a victim of its own success?

Of course, we take much pleasure in enumerating the successes of our programs; certainly, they have been unprecedented in the history of chronic disease. Consider the fact that between 1970 and 1993, age-adjusted coronary heart disease death rates declined 53% and stroke death rates declined 60%. Moreover, favorable recent population trends in major risk factors for cardiovascular disease (eg, blood pressure, serum cholesterol, and smoking) suggest that continued reductions in death rates will be achievable. We have also enjoyed considerable success in the area of infant mortality as a result of research on neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, and we have improved life expectancy for people with inherited diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia, that previously . . . [Full Text of this Article]