Office of Communications & Media Relations

The Office of Communications and Media Relations (OCMR) shares timely, accurate and important information about the Clinical Center's scientific advances, patient experiences and services, educational and collaborative opportunities and clinical research initiatives which improve patient care and benefit human health.

Patients have called the Clinical Center the "House of Hope." We'll help you understand why.

Examples of OCMR activities include:

Serving as the "go-to" office for all reporter inquiries, photography and filming requests related to the Clinical Center.
Producing a variety of quality, informative publications ranging from the hospital's newsletter to its annual report.
Supporting development of materials that are key to our patients' experience and safety, such as nutritional information, patient handbooks and educational materials for patients about their care and condition.
Creating innovative digital content and engaging with patients and their caregivers, the NIH community, outside researchers and other stakeholders through apps, social media and the website.
Promoting stimulating lectures on cutting edge science, including Clinical Center Grand Rounds and the NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series, as well as special events such as National Symphony Orchestra concerts in the Clinical Center's grand atrium, which contribute to the hospital's unique environment of care.

Treasure Tour game app — The NIH Clinical Center is giving its patients the chance to "level up" with a new app. Treasure Tour is a free game application created for the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Launched in October 2021, the app is aimed at children, teens and their families to better help them understand the layout of the hospital, the programs and services offered onsite and the procedures and tests patients might undergo.

The National Symphony Orchestra Chamber Strings performing — The **National Symphony Orchestra Chamber Strings**, a 28-piece chamber strings group, performed a program in 2021 that ranged from Mozart to Amazing Grace and was conducted by Lina Gonzalez-Granados. This is the ninth year of the National Symphony Orchestra Sound Health program; an initiative that seeks to explore the various ways music can reduce stress and promote tranquility and wellness for patients, staff and visitors.

Inside the NIH Clinical Center's Rehabilitation Medicine Department, a team of doctors, engineers, technicians, and physical therapists have gathered to map the brain activity of a two-year-old clinical trial participant named Ethan. View the June 2019 Washingtonian piece, and additional examples of the Clinical Center in the News. Photo Credit: Lauren Bulbin

Dr. Harvey Alter, a Senior Scholar at the NIH Clinical Center's Department of Transfusion Medicine, is a co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. He shares the award with Michael Houghton, Ph.D., University of Alberta, Canada, and Charles M. Rice, Ph.D., Rockefeller University, New York City.