OECR UPDATE
An Introduction to the NIH Office of Emergency Care Research
SAEM PULSE | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
By Jeremy Brown, MD
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We are approaching the tenth anniversary of the Office of Emergency Care Research (OECR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and this milestone gives us the opportunity to think about how the office serves the emergency medicine research community. To increase the impact of the office for emergency care research and support SAEM members, we will use this column in SAEM Pulse to provide helpful information about the NIH and OECR, including topics such as NIH training grants, moving from such a grant to fully independent research, T programs and much more. But let’s start at the beginning and explain what the office is, how it fits within the NIH structure, and how the NIH works. As its name implies, there is more than one institute at NIH. In fact, there are 27 institutes and centers, each with its own research focus. Some of these institutes focus on a disease or
“The Office of Emergency Care Research has an NIH-wide mission, and its purpose is to coordinate and foster clinical and translational research and research training for the emergency setting.” an organ. For example, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) focuses on a disease — stroke — but also on other disorders of the nervous system. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) focuses on diseases of the heart, lung, and blood. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease has, as its name implies, allergies and infectious diseases as its focus. The National Eye
Institute carries out research on, well, the eye. Other institutes focus on a population, rather than an organ or a disease. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has the pediatric population as its focus, while the health of those in their golden years is the mission of the National Institute on