National Institutes of Health

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National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Established by Congress in 1992, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine conducts and funds research to determine the effectiveness of alternative and nontraditional health-care practices, such as acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnosis, herbal medicine, and biofeedback. It funds specialized offices throughout the United States that investigate the use of alternative treatments for specific diseases, health conditions, and at-risk populations. See also Alternative Medicine.

Although the center does not endorse alternative therapies, it encourages discussion between practitioners of alternative medicine and traditional medical professionals. It also distributes information about alternative and complementary medicine to the public, media, and health-care professionals. It was originally named the Office of Alternative Medicine, but in 1998 Congress elevated the office to the status of an NIH center, increasing its budget and authority.

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Other NIH Centers

The Clinical Center, founded in 1953, is the primary research hospital used by NIH researchers. The center provides hospital care for patients participating in NIH clinical research.

The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, established in 2000, promotes the health of ethnic minorities and leads, coordinates, and assesses NIH efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate health disparities in the population as a whole.

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The Center for Scientific Review, established in 1946, provides scientific merit reviews of most research grant and fellowship applications submitted to the NIH. It assigns the applications to appropriate institutes, centers, or other scientific advisory groups for further review. The Center for Scientific Review also helps the NIH formulate policies and procedures for awarding grants.

The Center for Information Technology, established in 1998, operates and manages the computer and telecommunications resources of the NIH. The center provides advanced computing facilities and data processing for NIH institutes. It also conducts biomedical computational research.

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The National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine gathers, organizes, and maintains biomedical information for the use of researchers, educators, physicians and other health professionals, and the public. It has the world’s largest collection of health-related information. Through Web-based services, it makes health and medical information available to people around the world. Originally named the Library of the Office of the Surgeon General, the library became a part of the NIH in 1968.

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History

The National Institutes of Health traces its roots to a one-room laboratory established in 1887 by the Marine Hospital Service, which provided medical care to officers and enlisted men in the United States Navy. The Marine Hospital Service authorized a young physician named Joseph J. Kinyoun to set up a laboratory for bacterial research at the Marine Hospital on Staten Island, New York. After studying cholera-infected immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, in 1888 Kinyoun isolated the organism that causes the disease.

The laboratory moved to Washington, D.C., in 1891. Kinyoun served as the director of the Hygienic Laboratory, as it came to be called, until 1899. In 1901 the U.S. Congress authorized the Hygienic Laboratory to undertake “the investigation of infections and contagious diseases and matters pertaining to the public health.” The laboratory expanded to include divisions of pathology and bacteriology, chemistry, pharmacology, and zoology.

Congress further expanded the Hygienic Lab in 1930, renaming it the National Institute of Health. In 1937 Congress created the National Cancer Institute as a separate agency and authorized it to award grants to research scientists outside of the institute.

In 1938 the institute moved to the site of its current headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1944, the National Cancer Institute became a part of the National Institute of Health. The agency was renamed the National Institutes of Health in 1946.

After 1945 the entire NIH adopted the National Cancer Institute’s system of funding research conducted at other institutions, and the agency’s budget swelled. Congress’s annual appropriation to the NIH grew from about $4 million in 1947 to more than $100 million a decade later. Congress also authorized the addition of a series of specialized institutes to the NIH, each dedicated to a specific disease, health condition, or system of the body. By 1960 the NIH comprised 10 distinct institutes; today there are 19 separate institutes and 7 centers.

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