MaineHealth Institute for Research Community

 Van Scoyoc  Washington Week in Science April 4, 2025 Health ‘ One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs  On  health economist Jay Bhattacharya ’s first day as the head of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the chiefs of 4 of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the agency — including the country’s top infectious-diseases official — were removed from their posts. The directors of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) were informed late on 31 March they were being placed on administrative leave. Together, these leaders oversaw $9 billion in funding. Read more:   Nature   Researchers, ACLU sue over Trump's 'ideological purge' of NIH grants  Scientific researchers on Wednesday s...

Please help us build a library of testimonials to demonstrate the impact that research has on our lives and health in Maine. When you are ready to provide your information, go to this link . You will have an opportunity to fill in information about yourself, your positions, and the impact of research at MaineHealth. Feel free to also upload images or a video testimonial.  THANK YOU! THE IMPACT STATEMENT Sign-on Letter Research at MaineHealth For over 30 years, research excellence has been a foundational principle of Maine Medical Center and MaineHealth. As a health system, an integral part of MaineHealth's mission is to educate tomorrow's caregivers and to research ways to provide optimal care that best meets the health needs of our communities.  Medical discoveries start at the earliest stages in a research laboratory and a scientist's imagination. These discoveries fill knowledge gaps and improve our ability to provide the best clinical care to improve human health. In Re...

 Nature March’s best science images The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by  Nature’s  photo team. By Emma Stoye see more amazing photos here Creepy-crawly courtship .  This shot of a pair of courting crab spiders, taken by nature photographer Sandip Guha in Shiliguri, India, highlights the difference in size between the male and his much larger mate (in some crab-spider species, the female is more than 60 times as big). The photo was a winner at this year’s  London Camera Exchange Photographer of the Year  competition. Sandip Guha Alien vibes . This eerie but vibrant snap shows a flower mantis ( Creobroter sp. ) perched on top of the strange fruiting body of a  Cordyceps  fungus. In daylight, this insect is usually green, but wildlife photographer Irina Petrova Adamatzky used strategically placed coloured lights to accentuate its otherworldly appearance and that of the fungus. The shot won a bronze award in the 2025  World Nature Pho...

A great way to get statistics about health in Maine and across the country Explore a new national map of health March 17, 2025 Clean air and water, access to good paying jobs and the chance to have a say in your community. These are all  community conditions that influence your health . At County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R), we provide a snapshot of health-related measures for nearly every county in the U.S. And we know that what influences health isn’t neatly contained within a county or state border. We now have updated methods and a new national map, which offer a broad view of regional and national trends and invite actions to improve health for all. In 2024, we revised our methods and introduced Health Groups, which provide data-informed groupings on a national continuum. Each county (where data are available) is assigned to one of ten Health Groups with a corresponding color shade. Building upon our previous ranking approach that supported comparisons between ...

 Nature News  ‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs In shock move, four institute directors at the US biomedical agency are removed from their posts. By   Max Kozlov On  health economist Jay Bhattacharya ’s first day as head of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the chiefs of four of the 27 institutes and centres that make up his agency — including the country’s top infectious-diseases official — were removed from their posts. The unprecedented move comes amid  massive cuts to research at the NIH . The directors of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) were informed late on 31 March that they were being placed on administrative leave. Together, these leaders were in charge of US$9 billion in fund...

  Government Affairs Regulatory Changes & Guidance Updates Regulatory Changes & Guidance Updates April 1, 2025 MaineHealth Government Affairs’ Regulatory Changes & Guidance Updates is an internal newsletter that is distributed weekly and includes state and federal proposed and final rules, policy changes, and other pertinent announcements from the state and federal governments. Please note that any formal submissions to the state or federal government on behalf of MaineHealth are coordinated by the Government Affairs Team. State & Federal Rulemaking Federal: None this week. State: None this week.  To comment on proposed rules, please contact   Sara.KahnTroster@mainehealth.org. State Programs & Announcements OMS  issued  an update on the status of the temporary MaineCare payment holds. OMS  published  the recording and presentation from the March 31 kickoff meeting for the rate review process for Interpreter Services. OMS  will be h...