R.I. Hospital receives $1.9M to study early childhood development

U.S. SEN. Jack F. Reed said the approximately $1.9 million federal grant will allow Rhode Island hospitals "to conduct clinical trials that will have a major impact on the future of children’s health in Rhode Island and across the nation." / COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S. SEN. JACK F. REED
U.S. SEN. Jack F. Reed said the approximately $1.9 million federal grant will allow Rhode Island hospitals "to conduct clinical trials that will have a major impact on the future of children’s health in Rhode Island and across the nation." / COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S. SEN. JACK F. REED

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Hospital will receive $1,877,090 in federal funding from the National Institutes of Health as part of the Environmental Influence on Children’s Health Outcomes initiative, which studies how environmental factors in early development influence the health of children and adolescents.

The award was announced Friday by U.S. Sen. Jack F. Reed, who was instrumental in helping secure a $2 billion increase for NIH medical research in the fiscal year 2017 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. The grant is part of a $157 million commitment NIH is making in fiscal year 2016 in support of the Environmental Influence on Children’s Health Outcomes initiative.

Rhode Island Hospital is part of the NIH’s Institutional Development Award network, which helps bring NIH grant money to states and areas that previously received less NIH funding than others. The award will allow Rhode Island Hospital to build an IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials network to support the Rhode Island Child Clinical Trials Collaborative. The collaborative will be a four-year project that will enable Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Women and Infants Hospital and Brown University to develop their own pediatric clinical trials network as well as participate in the national NIH network.

“This grant has great potential. It will allow some of Rhode Island’s leading medical research institutions – including our state’s major children’s hospital and obstetrics delivery hospital – to conduct clinical trials that will have a major impact on the future of children’s health in Rhode Island and across the nation,” Reed said in a press release.

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Dr. Phyllis Dennery, pediatrician-in-chief at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, said while it is known pediatric health issues can impact a child for the rest of his or her life, early intervention can “drastically improve” the course of a child’s long-term health and avoid negative outcomes altogether.

“So, better understanding of how maternal and environmental influences impact diseases such as autism, obesity and asthma amongst others, will be very important to the health of Rhode Island children and children across the country,” she said in the release.

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