Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) will merge its research program with the School of Medicine’s research administration beginning this month, according to William A. Peck, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, and Ronald G. Evens, M.D., president of BJH.
The transfer of BJH extramural research grants to the University should be completed by the end of 2003.
BJH receives roughly 100 grants and contracts from the federal government, voluntary health organizations and corporate or foundation sources. Seventy of the grants and contracts will be transferred to the medical school and approximately 30 will be allowed to elapse under the hospital.
The total amount of research funding being transferred is roughly $15 million per year and will raise the medical school’s total research funding to about $380 million annually.
The faculty who receive these funds already are employed by the University, but the transfer will affect about 150 hospital staff, whose employment will be shifted to the University.
Most of the affected faculty and staff are in the Department of Medicine, but a number of other departments are involved as well. These faculty members now will submit their grants through the Grants and Contracts Office at the medical school. Faculty members whose laboratories are in hospital space will remain in the space they currently occupy, which now will be leased from the hospital by the medical school.
“Under the care of Washington University physicians and researchers, patients admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital or cared for in the new Center for Advanced Medicine will continue to have access to the cutting-edge treatments and devices available at teaching hospitals and medical schools,” Peck said.
Evens added, “Barnes-Jewish Hospital has a long tradition of research, and it will continue with our partners at the School of Medicine. Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Barnes-Jewish Foundation will increase its support of innovative clinical investigations to improve patient outcomes. Barnes-Jewish care givers will blend science and clinical expertise to improve the health and safety of our patients.”
The medical school’s and hospital’s laboratory animal programs and their clinical trial institutional review boards were integrated previously. The animal research is overseen by the medical school’s Animal Studies Committee, and clinical research is reviewed and monitored by the Washington University Medical Center Human Studies Committee.
Research grants and contracts supporting faculty members at St. Louis Children’s Hospital already are administered at the medical school.