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The NIH Clinical Center has been in the business of understanding, diagnosing and treating illnesses since it opened its doors in 1953. We focus on innovations that help millions but also help understand rare diseases that may only directly impact a few. All of this work, in partnership with our patients, helps us understand diseases and illnesses and search for solutions that can improve health for all Americans.
An interactive virtual tour of the NIH Clinical Center is available.
“CC patients are partners in research and your participation is invaluable to advancing medical knowledge. We are committed to making your experiences here as safe, comfortable and satisfying as possible. Thank you for your continued partnership."
Dr. James Gilman, NIH Clinical Center CEO from 2017 - 2025
Over 1,200 credentialed physicians, dentists, and PhD researchers; 620 nurses; and 450 allied health care personnel work in patient care units and laboratories focused on medical care and clinical study. Take a look at our work, by the numbers.
The NIH Clinical Center sees two types of research participants: patient volunteers and healthy volunteers. Patient volunteers are people with specific diseases or conditions who help medical investigators learn more about their condition or test new medications, procedures or treatments. A healthy volunteer is a person with no known significant health problems who plays a vital role in research to test a new drug, device or intervention.
Currently, there are about 1,600 studies in progress at the NIH Clinical Center. About half are studies of the natural history of disease, especially rare diseases, which often are not studied anywhere else. What researchers learn by studying rare diseases often adds to the basic understanding of common diseases. Most other studies are clinical trials, which often are the first tests of new drugs and therapies in people. The clinical trials at the NIH Clinical Center are predominantly Phase I and Phase II, often first-in-human to test safety and efficacy.
Areas of Clinical Study:
This plethora of expertise under one roof allows patients to see specialists in one week that would take months, if not years, to see in other settings. The collaborative environment of the NIH Clinical Center makes it possible for investigators to make referrals for immediate testing and confer with peers across research interests to come up with the best approach for diagnosing and treating patients. The freedoms that the NIH Clinical Center affords encourage clinician-scientists to stretch their imagination and pursue the ideas that may lead to a medical discovery.
The NIH Clinical Center recognizes that a special patient population requires a special team of nurses. In 2010, Nursing and Patient Care Services completed a four-year initiative to define the specialty of clinical research nursing. In addition to providing and coordinating clinical care, clinical research nurses have a central role in assuring participant safety, ongoing maintenance of informed consent, integrity of protocol implementation, accuracy of data collection, data recording and follow up. The step to formalize their specialty led to a recommitment to the principles of primary nursing and application of those principles in the current practice environment for nurses.
Acknowledging the importance of a patient's support system and comfort level, there are many programs in place to ease the clinical research process for both patients and their families. Friends of Patients at the NIH is a nonprofit organization that provides patients in need emotional and financial support while they receive care at the NIH. This can include shelter near the NIH during treatment, help keeping up with housing costs at home, family and caregiver travel costs back and forth to the NIH, and minor quality of life activities to reduce stress on patients. Pediatric patients and their families stay at The Children's Inn a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year operation where kids can be kids for a while, instead of patients. Also to support children while at the NIH Clinical Center, there is a school teaching kindergarten through high school with a classroom and teachers who will go to the bedside.
For families and loved ones of adult patients, the Edmund J. Safra Family Lodge offers a home-like place of respite just steps away from the NIH Clinical Center, providing space for solitude, family meetings, and supportive fellowship.
