Morgana Mongraw-Chaffin

U.S. bioscience research is collapsing. This is the map of a systemic rot. NIH new award pace this year: 14.6% of normal. If you wanted to stall science, you don't pick & choose states. You just freeze the entire map. In case you missed it: ▫️ ~95,000 scientists gone (@nytimes) ▪️ ~$2.4B in NIH research wiped out ▫️ ~$6B in economic loss (@DrCatharineY / PNAS) This is what (predictably) follows next: ⇣ early-career scientists exit for good ⇣ breakthrough discoveries never made ⇣ trials that never open ⇣ labs that quietly shut down ⇣ global talent choosing other countries ⇣ the next decade of innovation erased before it starts Sadly, you don’t "bounce back" from 14% you just hollow out the system. For a country that leads in science, this is the mo(u)rning after “National Science Appreciation Day” ========== Source: NIH RePORTER via @Jori_health Plot note: NIH new-award counts were compared to the 5-year historic median for every state (as of the first week of March, Q2). ==========

And restaurants don’t need HIPAA compliant encrypted servers, negative pressure containment labs, multiple specialized waste streams, support for compliance to multiple federal agencies, and staff with expert training and certifications that take a decade of learning to achieve.

For context: the average overhead for a restaurant is 35%. This is roughly equivalent to a 60% IDC rate ($1.00x0.6=$1.60 and $0.6/$1.60=37.5%). So they want world class research for half of the support it takes to sell a bowl of pasta?

And while every incremental step is essential for science and discovery, those jumps are what change the world.

My brain needs rest from the structured in progress projects and admin work. It needs air and light. It needs space to wander and roam and get just a little bit lost. The linear progression demanded by writing papers or grants is too rigid to let it jump around.

The bold epiphany that moves the field requires room to breathe and external inspiration. There are literally endless hypotheses we could falsify. How do we choose which ones to prioritize? And how do we structure a system that allows for the development of truly novel ideas?

@DrGermanMD @Georgetown @MedStarGUH @MedStarWHC @UChicago Congrats Charles! I’m so glad you’re joining us at MedStar!

A little late, but I’m excited to announce I’ve taken a position as Director of Preventive Cardiology @Georgetown @MedStarGUH @MedStarWHC! Thank you to my @UChicago family, I'm extremely grateful for my experience over the last 3 years

@spjuraschek Hard to tell, but the tail looks like it could be a rattle. Very well could be, especially if you’re somewhere in the western part of the US. I hope you don’t get to find out more specifically.

Rattlesnake?

@PhDemetri Caveat: I’m an epidemiologist. Statistics are a tool that, along with causal inference, can help us understand and account for bias in order to get closer to true relationships in data and ideally populations.

Real question: why do statistics? What does statistical modelling give us? Has there been a good take on this?

@EpiEllie Having early grants for phds separate from MDs would help too. K awardees are more likely to be men and MDs, which would be expected except that there isn’t a good first independent grant for phds ready to lead the research where they aren’t competing with senior scientists.

Too much postdoc funding isn’t what prevents people from transitioning into research careers. The problem is *too little* research funding for those research careers — and thus not enough jobs.

@EpiEllie If they made even a minor effort to support having families without MORE applications and burden to the researcher, it would help this situation a LOT.

@EpiEllie Yikes! Instead of public comment, NIH could take a look at their own data and see if this would unduly impact women researchers. Funny thing that postdoc years overlap a LOT with the years women have babies.

If you have a leadership job, then you also have a kindness job. Yes, there is work to get done and goals to meet. But we also have a responsibility to leverage our authority and decision making capability to uphold human dignity.

@DrGermanMD @MedStarResearch Congrats to you too! That is wonderful! My job is remote so I won’t be in DC, but definitely get in touch once you’re settled in and let’s talk research. Maybe we can finally write a grant together!

@EpiMorgana @MedStarResearch Wow amazing, congratulations @EpiMorgana! I’m also starting a new position at Medstar Georgetown in the coming months! Happy to have a familiar face in DC

I am so excited to be joining MHRI @MedStarResearch as Scientific Director of Population Health Research! I can’t wait to start new collaborations and find more opportunities to make a difference and improve health with this wonderful team!

@paragchevli @MedStarResearch Thanks Parag! I’m looking forward to new projects while continuing my collaborations at Wake. I hope we get to work together on another paper soon!

@EpiMorgana @MedStarResearch Congratulations Morgana!

@spjuraschek And we’d probably make a bigger difference in outcomes by just making sure everyone who already needs current hypertension meds gets them, given the huge gap for affordability and access.

With HTN, sometimes I feel like we keep getting tech that no one asked for...cuffless devices...renal denervation...where are more chlorthalidone-based combo pills!?! Or BP cuffs for wide/conical arms? How about exam rooms/work flow that work for BP measurement! #Livinginthepast

@BovbjergMarit @scarsandhearts Many undergrads see public health major and some masters students see Epi as a check box on the way to med school. At the grad level they struggle because it never occurred to them that another field might be challenging. Also medical training is not strong on critical thinking.

@scarsandhearts You would think that a public health major would care, a bit. 🤷🏻‍♀️

On the final, I ask students how many classes they attended, & what might make them come more. One student said 0 classes, bc syllabus says “I encourage you to wear a mask. The pandemic is not over” this “rubbed [them] the wrong way” so they never came, to intro epidemiology