Physicians, Heal Thyselves!

Inside the laboratories of the National Institutes of Health, 3,200 of America's best researchers are tackling medical mysteries that range from conception to aging. But one of the most perplexing problems confronting the NIH is its own health. Considered by many to be the world's most productive biomedical-research facility, the NIH is nonetheless suffering from a multitude of ailments. Noncompetitive salaries have made it difficult to retain top researchers or hire replacements. Political meddling has stopped some areas of investigation and assumed control of others. A recent monitoring of ethical infractions, concerns about allegations of fraud, and new conflict- of-interest regulations have combined to drag down morale. The Bush Administration let the situation worsen by leaving the NIH without a director for nearly two years. At least three men turned the job down, some protesting the Administration's abortion "litmus test."

"Things are so bad, some have said, they couldn't even get a man to be NIH director," jokes Bernadine Healy, a cardiovascular researcher. This week Healy, 46, makes her debut before Congress as the new NIH director, the first woman to hold that job. To many it appears that George Bush may finally have summoned just the right doctor. In addition to work in medical and research areas, Healy has had a lengthy career in science policy. She has served on several federal science-advisory committees and, most recently, as chief of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation's Research Institute. Most important, she knows intimately the problems confronting the NIH. "This is not only a job worth doing but also one that can be done," she says.

Healy is now entrusted with the world's most unusual biomedical-research center. No other institution houses as many biomedical researchers on a single campus. "It's the linchpin of biomedical research," says Yale medical school dean Leon Rosenberg. Last year alone, NIH scientists or their associates on university campuses began the first federally sanctioned gene therapy on a human, located the cystic fibrosis gene, developed a drug to reduce paralysis from spinal-cord injuries and demonstrated that the drug AZT prolongs life in AIDS patients.