Christopher Russell, MD, MS (he/his/him)

SGIM and NAPCRG File Lawsuit Against HHS Over Halt to AHRQ Grantmaking - SGIM The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for halting a...

🚨🚨This directly affects me, as I may not get year 5 of my award that was set to be renewed 8/1. Spent 4 years of #AHRQ funding to collect data on children with #tracheostomy. If not resolved by 9/30, I may not have the funding to analyze the data. www.sgim.org/news/sgim-an...

🚨🚨Please amplify and consider joining the lawsuit or submitting an amicus brief: @academyhealth.bsky.social @atscommunity.bsky.social @ats-peds.bsky.social @ameracadpeds.bsky.social

SGIM and NAPCRG File Lawsuit Against HHS Over Halt to AHRQ Grantmaking - SGIM The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for halting a...

🚨🚨This directly affects me, as I may not get year 5 of my award that was set to be renewed 8/1. Spent 4 years of #AHRQ funding to collect data on children with #tracheostomy. If not resolved by 9/30, I may not have the funding to analyze the data. www.sgim.org/news/sgim-an...

YouTube video by Annie Andrews Annie Andrews Launch Video: "Unafraid"

I'm Dr. Annie Andrews. I’m a pediatrician, not a politician. But either way I know how to handle people who are full of sh*t.

Today I am announcing my campaign for US Senate to replace Lindsey Graham. Share this if you're with me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8wM...

Stanford president and provost back Harvard in funding fight The president and provost said Harvard’s rejection of government demands was “rooted in the American tradition of liberty.”

Stanford’s president and provost release a statement supporting Harvard. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/15/l...

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

The Promise of American Higher Education: www.harvard.edu/president/ne...

Harvard rejects Trump administration’s demands with federal funding at risk The university’s response comes after the government announced a federal review of nearly $9 billion in funding to Harvard and its affiliates.

Proud of my alma mater: “We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement. The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

The NIH grant that has supported 38 years of training the best pediatrician-scientists in the country (I’m a proud former recipient) was cancelled. It was just approved for a 5 year renewal. The PSDP has supported the careers of many NIH-funded pediatrician-scientists and thought leaders

Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants Studies that touch on LGBT+ health, gender identity and DEI in the biomedical workforce could be terminated, according to documents obtained by Nature.

This censorship of science is SHAMEFUL. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Judge issues preliminary injunction blocking Trump cuts to NIH research overhead payments A federal judge issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from slashing NIH payments for research overhead

Preliminary injunction in nationwide indirect cost rate case.

This means that the judge found that the plaintiffs (AAMC, et al.) are likely to win on the merits when the ruling is finalized.

www.statnews.com/2025/03/05/n...

The University of Pittsburgh pauses its Ph.D. admissions process amid research funding uncertainty A spokesperson for the University told WESA Friday that the school has "temporarily paused additional Ph.D. offers of admission," while Pitt works to understand how proposed federal funding cuts could...

The University of Pittsburgh confirmed Friday that there would be no new Ph.D. offers of admission while Pitt works to understand how reduced federal aid could impact the institution.

This is a five-alarm fire 🔥 for US science 🧪.
(We keep saying that, but it keeps being true 😭.)

Trump and Musk are blocking *ALL* NIH grants ‼️ by "exploiting a loophole in the process"—stopping study sections & council meetings.

Every biomedical researcher in the country should be screaming. 1/

Wonderful to collaborate with @lkelley-quon.bsky.social!

How Capping NIH Indirect Costs at 15% Hurts Science, Jobs, and Public Health
1/ The new cap to indirect costs at 15% on NIH grants may sound like a way to cut wasteful spending. In reality, it would devastate biomedical research, slow medical breakthroughs, and cost jobs.
Y'all know I love a good 🧵

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%.

I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

NIH plans to slash support for indirect research costs, sending shockwaves through science The NIH said Friday night that it would slash support for indirect costs on all existing and future grants to 15%

“This is a blatant attempt to gut the universities and health research that have saved so many lives and given economic opportunity to so many people.” @iwashyna.bsky.social on impact of new NIh order to cut research indirect costs. www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/n...

🚨 🚨

Withdrawal of funding mid-trial is a serious violation of research ethics and implicates all of us who engage in clinical research. Ethical review boards around the world will have to re-evaluate allowing US-funded projects. The balance between harm-benefit is complexly upended.

BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed. Any unpublished manuscript mentioning certain topics, including gender and "LGBT," must be pulled or revised.

BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed.

Goes beyond MMWR +other CDC pubs. Applies to research already submitted to top medical journals.

Take a look.
open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

thinking this morning about how the NIH's definition of diversity also includes uplifting struggling Americans of all races and genders (formerly homeless, on WIC, foster kids, first-gen students, rural Americans, etc)

Or be clear in the abstract that it was underpowered (understanding that this was not due to any fault of the investigators). However, noting this as a randomized, multicenter, double-blinded study in the title but not acknowledging that it was underpowered in the abstract is concerning.

Can’t reliably estimate the rare outcomes if you are so underpowered. IMO, underpowered RCTs, particularly those with null findings or non-inferiority design, should rarely be published. People see RCT and think high level of evidence, and assume the conclusions are sound.

They also (incorrectly) state in the abstract that “Placebo appears to be non-inferior to amoxicillin in reducing fever duration” but then correctly say in the discussion that they “must reject the hypothesis of non-inferiority of placebo over amoxicillin.” Can’t move the goal posts…

The primary outcome is odd—fever duration—and they are quite underpowered to detect differences in adverse events. The adverse events aren’t benign (~3% in placebo with RPA), which may have been prevented by upfront treatment. Not sure how to use this in my practice.

This memo from @academyhealth.bsky.social is the most useful #NIH shutdown guidance I’ve seen so far. Highlights mine.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

“The White House budget office is ordering a pause to all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government…” including all research grants! 🚨 🚨

National Institute of General Medical Sciences NIGMS supports basic research to understand biological processes and lay the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

The NIH diversity supplement pages have all been pulled down. What is a diversity supplement and why should the public care? A diversity supplement is funding to help diversify the research workforce. You may be wondering, “so what?”. Let me explain. www.nigms.nih.gov/Pages/PageNo...

"Health disparities research" is a field of study where researchers look at how things like race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status can influence health outcomes. Now any gov't website about this says "page not found".

This is a dystopia that I did not imagine that we'd be living through.