Gallin appointed to new leadership position

Duties designed to strengthen strategic planning, prioritization, scientific review

For more than two decades, while under the leadership of director Dr. John I. Gallin, the NIH Clinical Center achieved scientific advances that are saving hundreds of thousands of lives, pioneered countless patient-centered initiatives and trained the next generation of clinician-scientists. This January, Gallin will complete a transition from hospital director to a newly created role as NIH Associate Director for Clinical Research and Chief Scientific Officer for the Clinical Center, where he can leverage his unparalleled experience to tackle a number of emergent challenges facing both the hospital and the Intramural Research Program.

As a world renowned research institution, a regular host to presidential visits, and the only hospital to ever receive a prestigious Lasker Award, the Clinical Center's record of success with Gallin at the helm is perhaps too long to list here, but some key institutional milestones include; overseeing the design and activation of the Clinical Research Center; the establishment of a curriculum for clinical research training that is replicated around the globe; and the development of information systems for biomedical translational and clinical research. All the while, the Clinical Center remained at the vanguard of fighting the world's most vexing public health crises, from AIDS to Zika.

Last August, Gallin began transitioning to his new job even while continuing as director of the Clinical Center. He will complete the transition once the new Clinical Center Chief Executive Officer, Major General James K. Gilman, M.D., U.S. Army (Retired), begins in early 2017 (see coverage in upcoming January CC News).

NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins decided to alter the Clinical Center's longstanding leadership structure in response to recommendations in the Red Team Report. The report was developed by external members of an NIH working group in hopes to better reduce risk and promote patient safety in the hospital.

Notably, in his newly created position, Gallin will play a major role in developing a systematic approach to distributing resources within the Clinical Center. His specific duties will include:

• managing the scientific review process for clinical protocols conducted within the 18 institutes and centers that utilize the hospital within the NIH Intramural Program;
• setting priorities for clinical research across institutes and centers to ensure stewardship of the scarce resources within the Clinical Center;
• reviewing institutes and center directors new oversight responsibilities of their clinical directors;
• supervising the independent research programs of Clinical Center investigators;
• overseeing the strategic planning process for Intramural Clinical Research;
• developing strategic partnerships with the extramural community to expand and foster new collaborations; and
• overseeing clinical research training programs at NIH.

The Clinical Center's Office of Protocol Services and the Biomedical Translational Research Information System (BTRIS), as well as the Bench-to-Bedside grants program, will be under the purview of Gallin's new office.

Gallin, who is a rare disease expert and member of the National Academy of Medicine, will report to the NIH director and will interact closely with the institute and center directors throughout the Intramural Research Program. Gallin is expected to maintain offices in both Building 1 and the Clinical Center. Collins said in a staff-wide email in August that Gallin's new position "is essential to ensuring that NIH continue its record of extraordinary scientific accomplishments in a world-class clinical research setting."

In September, Gallin, who still operates a research lab at the Clinical Center, spoke at an NIH Town Hall about the pending leadership changes.

"I look forward to how we can improve our clinical research here at the Clinical Center, and I want to thank you again for all you have done to make this place so special," Gallin said. "I look forward to pursuing this new adventure with you, and I hope to be able to count on your continued support."