42 U.S.C. § 285b–4 — National research and demonstration centers

(a) Heart, blood vessel, lung, blood diseases, and blood resources; utilization of centers for prevention programs. (1) The Director may, following subsection (c), develop: (A) 10 centers researching, training in, and demonstrating advanced diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation methods (including emergency medical services) for heart and blood vessel diseases; (B) 10 centers doing the same for lung diseases, including bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, cystic fibrosis, and other lung diseases in children; (C) 10 centers doing the same for blood diseases, blood research, blood product use, and blood resource management; and (D) 3 centers for cardiovascular diseases in children, covering genetic studies, studies of the womb environment, studies after birth, heart arrhythmias, acquired heart disease, and preventive cardiology. (2) These centers must also run prevention programs for cardiovascular, lung, and blood diseases, including: (A) programs to better detect people at high risk of these diseases; (B) programs to intervene against the factors that cause that high risk; (C) programs to train health and allied health professionals skilled in preventing these diseases; (D) programs to improve emergency medical services for people with these diseases; and (E) continuing education for health professionals on diagnosing, preventing, and treating these diseases and staying healthy, plus public information programs on preventing, early diagnosing, and treating these diseases and staying healthy. (3) Any single center's research, training, and demonstration work may cover one or more of the diseases listed in paragraph (1). (b) Sickle cell anemia. The Director must, following subsection (c), develop 10 centers for basic and clinical research into diagnosing, treating, and controlling sickle cell anemia. (c) Cooperative agreements and grants for establishing and supporting; uses for Federal payments; period of support, additional periods. (1) The Director may enter cooperative agreements with, or make grants to, public or private nonprofit groups to pay all or part of the cost of planning, setting up, strengthening, or running centers for basic and clinical research, training, and demonstration of blood resource management and advanced diagnosis, prevention, and treatment methods for heart, blood vessel, lung, or blood diseases. (2) These agreements or grants must follow policies set by the Director of NIH and come after consulting the Institute's advisory council. (3) This money may pay for: (A) construction, even beyond normal limits under section 289e; (B) staffing and other basic operating costs, including patient care costs needed for research; (C) training, including for allied health professionals; and (D) demonstration purposes. "Construction" does not include buying land, and "training" does not include research training covered by Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards under section 288. (4) A center's support can last up to five years, and the Director can extend it for more five-year periods if a technical and scientific peer review group reviews the center and recommends extending it.