Lauren Ferrante

Huge thanks to our entire interprofessional ICU team for all of their hard work making the STEPS-ICU mobility program a success over the past 10 years! It takes a team to sustain a culture of ICU mobility!

@yalepccsm.bsky.social
@icurehab.bsky.social
#medsky
#ICUsky #CriticalCareSky
#Rehabsky

Just learned the names of some of the phenomenal NIH scientists and leaders who were abruptly fired or put on leave today and I am in shock.

(From left): Margaret Pisani, Carol Hodgson, Lauren Ferrante, Deena Costa, Melissa Knauert out for Dr. Hodgson’s visiting professor dinner

We were thrilled to host @carolhodgson.bsky.social at @yalepccsm.bsky.social this week! Great discussions about science, a fun dinner, & we even made time for a Yale walking tour #critcaresky #academicsky

This is horrific - and heartbreaking for all of the trainees on these grants.

Packed house at our ICU delirium session on the last afternoon of #SCCM2025 - happening now in W315. Join us! #critcaresky @johndevlinpharmd.bsky.social @snigdhajain.bsky.social

Kicking off the GeriCC track at #SCCM2025 with an amazing plenary by Terry Fulmer from the John A. Hartford Foundation on Age-Friendly Health Systems! SCCM attendees: Join us for a great day of programming today in W315 (& later on Congress Digital) #medsky #icusky @amergeriatrics.bsky.social

Come together, right now The chaos, conflicting information, firings, and hurtful rhetoric of the Trump administration’s approach to science over the past month are causing anxiety, grief, and concern for the scientific commu...

"These common values must now propel everyone in the scientific community to work together as never before to stand up for science. Although the individual messages ... might seem inadequate on their own, it is their collective power that matters"

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Attending #SCCM2025? Join us for an entire track of fantastic #GeriCC programming on Tuesday Feb 25, beginning with a Thought Leader plenary by Terry Fulmer from the John A. Hartford Foundation! #medsky #academicsky #critcaresky #ICM #ICU @amergeriatrics.bsky.social

Trump Administration Stalls Scientific Research Despite Court Ruling (Gift Article) Using an arcane law, officials have effectively delayed funding from the National Institutes of Health, leaving medical studies in jeopardy.

New York Times article now up on Federal Register stuff.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/s...

1/n

Many of you may not be familiar with #NIH grants. Here are some facts to help you understand the magnitude of this disaster.
1) NIH grants are extremely difficult to get & not "free money". Researchers must have preliminary data & write detailed proposals. Mine was >200pages & took years to put

The funding freeze is NOT over.

Biomedical grants can't get reviewed or funded because of a "loophole" the current administration is exploiting.

The NIH timeline for reviewing and funding was already LONG, now this process is frozen indefinitely.

1/

February 18, 2024 TO: Dr. Matthew Memoli, Acting Director, NIH CC: John Burklow, Chief of Staff, NIH Julie Berko, Director, OHR, NIH FROM: Nathaniel James Brought, Director, ES, NIH SUBJECT: Resignation Dear Dr. Memoli, On July 3, 2001, I stepped off a bus on Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot Perris Island. Scared out of my mind, I stood on a pair of freshly painted yellow footprints, raised my right hand, and recited the oath of enlistment: I, Nathaniel James Brought, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. For the last 23 years, 7 months, and 15 days, I like to believe I have faithfully carried out the duties of each office to which I've been appointed in my military and civilian service to this nation. That Service has taken me from the Marine Corps to 3 different federal departments, spanned 3 continents, included service in one war zone, and has included: • For the Marine Corps and the National Security Agency, I worked on intelligence operations at the highest classification levels using bleeding edge intelligence tools to ensure America's special operators put boots-to-asses on America's enemies overseas (including commendations crediting my work for the kill or capture of dozens of terrorists), ensuring America's policy makers were able to track the movement of dangerous dual

nuclear technology across international borders, and monitored the flow of terrorist financing across the international banking system. • Utilized information from all-source intelligence to ensure the continued security of America's homeland from international and domestic threats. • Worked with some of the finest lawyers in the world to ensure America's security operations were effective, while upholding the rights of all those who interacted with them. • Ensuring that America's rural communities had access to programs like rural development loans, farm aid, and that America's children wouldn't be hungry as they sat in their classrooms and tried to learn. • Most recently, and frankly most dear to my heart, working with each of you here at the National Institutes of Health to advance the future of science and medicine. Not for Americans. Not for any one group of people. But for ALL of humanity. I am unbelievably proud to be able to say that there are Americans who are alive, and terrorists who are not, because of the work I've done to serve this nation. I am proud to say that my service to this country has allowed me to ensure that my children have never faced the struggles of poverty that I grew up with. That service didn't begin because of some great altruistic impulse or drive. I didn't grow up saying "I want to do the great work that needs to be done to weave the fabric of America and ensure her people are not only safe, but healthy." Frankly, that service began because I was poor, and I was inspired. I grew up as a free lunch kid who lived in project housing. It was my fellow Americans who made sure I wasn't hungry in class and that I had enough food to excel academically the way I did. It was Americans who had more than we did that made sure I had good schools to attend where I could learn things that expanded my mind. As I approached the end of high school, I dreamed of going to college and figuring out how to make a living that would allow me to do more tha…

to go to college. I knew my grades weren't good enough to compete for scholarships with kids who were as smart as me but also had private tutors and didn't have to work after class to be able to drive their brand-new cars to our school each day. So, I gave up. I nearly failed my senior year of high school with an attendance failure, even though I only needed two classes to graduate. I didn't see the point. What was the point of learning calculus? So it would be that much harder when my dream of being a brain surgeon died not because I was incapable, but because I didn't have the means to make it come true? I resigned myself to being one of the working poor. I resigned myself to needing a spinal fusion before I was 50, like my father, because he literally broke his back trying to make his dreams come true. The example of my father didn't inspire me at that time. It reminded me of the futility of trying to escape the rung of the social ladder I had been born onto. No matter how smart or "gifted and talented" I may have been, I saw no path that led me to a place where I could realize my potential. So, instead I accepted that it would be wasted. Ultimately, the reason I find myself here today, rather than in the place I saw as my only end, is because of another young man who committed to serving his country. Shamefully, I do not remember his name, but there was a young corporal from the United States Marine Corps who had been assigned as a recruiter in Reading, Pennsylvania at that time. This man spoke to me about my plans for my future during lunch one day at school. I told him I planned to do what my father had done. Work hard jobs until my body broke down, maybe start a struggling business, and try to do what I could to stay above the poverty line and off welfare. I told him I hoped to be successful enough that my kids never had to watch me use food stamps at the grocery store. It had been hard to watch my mom go through that. How sad is that? I was a smart young 18-…

Over on LinkedIn, the head of the Executive Secretariat of the NIH -- a central part of NIH leadership 🧪🩺-- resigned with a lettter worth reading

www.linkedin.com/posts/nathan...

To clarify, I’m one of the standing reviewers on this NIH study section. After countless hours by applicants who wrote the grants & countless hours spent by those of us reviewing, w/ reviews & a discussion order posted (!), the meeting is cancelled 36 hours in advance. See the above article for why

a man is playing basketball in a gym with a sign that says `` you just got shut down '' . ALT: a man is playing basketball in a gym with a sign that says `` you just got shut down '' .

Thanks for the info from reviewers...

All 8 CSR study section meeting scheduled today have been cancelled (due to the Federal Register announcement issue).

Some reviewers are finding out that their meetings are cancelled when they are notified by the travel agency that their tickets are cancelled.

This. My study section (at CSR, not institute-specific) meeting, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, was abruptly cancelled (“postponed”) yesterday afternoon.

The United States by virtue of a bipartisan commitment to biomedical research created one of the most vibrant, productive research ecosytems in the world. People came from all over to study here, do research here. It was a monumental accomplishment by both parties. 1/

Nothing surprising. Cutting indirect rates to 15% was mentioned in project 2025. But mentioning specific institutions in the announcement, is very telling. And if you had any doubt - biomedical research in the US is under attack, as is the health of American waiting for new drugs and therapies

Unbelievable speed of ATTEMPTS to dismantle science. They tried this 💩 in the first admin, proposing cuts to 10%, and it was resisted by Congress

Call your congresspeople, and remind them they have defended health research before, and they can do so again

The NIH’s drastic cut to indirect cost rates is a critical threat to U.S. research infrastructure The drastic reduction in indirect costs is not a path to innovation or cost savings — it’s a threat to U.S.’s position as global leader in medical research.

Massive NIH cuts to research infrastructure threaten the foundation of U.S. research—putting our future at risk. We need innovation in funding, not dismantling our research engine. My take in @statnews: www.statnews.com/2025/02/08/n...

In the video above, @hmkyale.bsky.social does a great job explaining what indirects are and why they matter. Please share widely and call your congressperson to advocate for the future of science in our country.

NIH caps "indirect research costs" at 15%, potentially surrendering decades of US dominance in medical research. Dr. Harlan Krumholz: "We cannot afford to sacrifice the core infrastructure that enables all the discoveries."

The attacks on the NIH, and this cut on NIH indirect costs to support research at academic institutions, will gut U.S. biomedical research as we know it. We will lose a whole generation of early career scientists & the U.S. will lose its position as the world leader in biomedical research.

Per an NIH source:

“Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”

Our country is hailed worldwide for our technical and scientific ingenuity

But it is federal grants that serve as the engine of innovation.

Pausing scientific grantmaking — by NSF, NIH, and more — is NOT a recipe for American greatness.

Consider reminding your senators & reps of this fact.

I’m still plugging away at grant reviews for an in-person NIH study section next month, with only a shred of hope that it will actually happen. This disruption to science has already been devastating for so many and it’s only been a few days. #MedSky #AcademicSky

My NIH study section that was to meet tomorrow was one of those canceled. This represents many months of work by the applicants and by the NIH staff and reviewers. Devastating is the correct word.

Screenshot showing that Arizona currently has $490,436,626 in NIH funding.

Never imagined I’d have to say this, but if you want to have a look at NIH RePORTER to see how much NIH funding your state receives so you can write to your elected representatives, you’d better do it now, and get a screenshot.

Thank you!!

Thank you!!

Just joined this weekend (long overdue) - please add me if there is still room in one of the PCCM starter packs!

Please add me to Intensive Care III- thank you!!