Congratulations to research teams from the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and indeed across all of Emory, on another record-shattering year of research funding! Emory University's external sponsored research funding totaled $734 million for FY2018--an impressive increase of 17% over last year. Of that total, WHSC investigators received more than $685.8 million. In the health sciences alone, that represents a phenomenal $101 million increase over last year.

This outstanding new record just confirms what I've known since joining the Emory family in 2016. We have one of the most talented, industrious, resourceful, and dedicated research enterprises in the nation. Our research faculty, staff, and administrative teams come together to develop proposals with enormous potential to save and improve lives and transform the ways in which we prevent, detect, and treat disease.

Thanks to each of you for making this extraordinary year possible. I look forward to all that you will accomplish in FY 2019 and beyond.

Jonathan S. Lewin, MD, FACR
Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, Emory University
Executive Director, Woodruff Health Sciences Center
CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board, Emory Healthcare

Please direct questions and comments to evphafeedback@emory.edu.

Research funding from external sources in FY 2018 was the largest in Emory's history, totaling $734 million, a 17% increase over $628 million in FY17.

Federal agencies awarded $440.8 million, or more than 60% of the total, led by the NIH, with $359 million in awards. NIH funding represented nearly 82% of total federal dollars awarded to Emory.

Researchers in the WHSC received more than $685.8 million in FY18, or nearly 93% of the university total, with $402.5 million in federal funding, including $359.2 million from the NIH. The WHSC breakdown is as follows:

- Medicine: $456.3 million
- Public Health: $132.9 million
- Yerkes: $74.7 million
- Nursing: $18 million
- Executive VP for Health Affairs: $3.5 million

"Faculty have worked hard to increase the number of proposals submitted to granting institutions, and their effort continues to pay off in greater numbers of awards," says David Stephens, VP for research in the health sciences.

Examples of Emory's externally funded research projects in FY 2018:

- $51 million over five years from the NIH for the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance

- $37 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for continued support of the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance Network

- $15 million from the Marcus Foundation to create the Marcus Stroke Network and $13 million to study stem cell options to treat osteoarthritis

- almost $4 million from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to study motor vehicle crashes in metro Atlanta that resulted in injuries treated at Grady

- $4.7 million from USAID to establish a physical therapy profession in the country of Georgia

- $1.7 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to Rollins to help guide norovirus vaccine decision-making through mathematical modeling

- $2.7 million from Health Resources and Services Administration to nursing to increase the community-based nursing workforce

Read more.

A new program at the Emory Brain Health Center will tackle early declines in memory, a condition affecting up to 20% of Americans over 65. The Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) Empowerment Program is made possible by $23.7 million in grants from the James M. Cox Foundation and Cox Enterprises.

The program will include a therapeutic day program for participants and caregivers, new technologies and innovations, research outcomes based on real-world function, and an environment that helps patients and their families take control over their health. 

According to Allan Levey, director of the Goizueta Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, lifestyle and behavioral research will be a major focus of the program. He says that learning more about patterns of exercise, diet, sleep, socialization, and other activities has tremendous potential to impact the disease and the quality of life of those affected.

"We have for many years given advice to patients and families to pursue healthy activities, but we have not had the tools to effectively measure their progress and to rigorously define the potential impact," says Levey.

More frequent contact and interaction with patients participating in day programs or other activities will allow researchers to refocus outcome measures using real-world function, at home and in the community, rather than outcomes based on artificial pencil and paper tests of memory and function during annual exams.

"Instead of measuring decline year by year, changes can be measured week to week, providing a comprehensive continuum of care," says Levey. "We hope to create an environment and approach that empowers those affected by MCI to take control over factors that might influence their disease course and to integrate this approach into more effective health care."


In this program, Emory will partner with Georgia Tech's Institute for People and Technology and the SimTiGrate Design Lab. They will work together to test and refine new technologies and innovations in built environments that promote health, including the use of wearable devices and innovations for the home for those with MCI. Read more.

Douglas Ander (emergency medicine) has been appointed director of Interprofessional Education (IPE) for the medical school. He has led IPE efforts in the school for the past 11 years.

Carla Berg (public health, behavioral sciences and health education) was named by Atlanta Business Chronicle as a 40 under forty honoree.

Erica Brownfield (internal medicine) is now associate dean for medical education, a role in which she assumes overall responsibility for the MD curriculum in the medical school.

Jasmine Clark (nursing school) won District 108, in Gwinnett County, in the Georgia House of Representatives, beating incumbent Clay Cox. 

Hannah Cooper (public health, behavioral sciences and health education) was selected as the inaugural Rollins Chair in Substance Use Disorders.

Ami Klin, director of the Marcus Autism Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, received the 2018 Ruane Prize.

Anant Mandawat is the new director of Winship Cancer Institute's cardio-oncology program.

Andrew Patterson will be the new chair of anesthesiology in the medical school, effective January 1.

Guido Silvestri (Yerkes) has been appointed interim chair of pathology in the medical school.

Four of those honored with Emory's 2018 Award of Distinction are in the health sciences: Tammyjo Best, Jennifer Daly (not pictured), Michelle James, and Maya Meeks.