42 U.S.C. § 285g–4 — National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research

(a) Establishment of Center: The Institute must have an agency called the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (the "Center"). The Institute's Director appoints a qualified Director of the Center, who reports directly to the Institute's Director. (b) Purpose: The Center's job is to conduct, support, and coordinate research and research training (including developing orthotic and prosthetic devices), share health information, and run other programs on rehabilitating people whose physical disabilities come from diseases or disorders of the nervous, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, pulmonary, or other body systems — called "medical rehabilitation" in this section. (c) Authority of Director: (1) To carry out the Center's purpose, its Director may (A) fund clinical trials on medical rehabilitation; (B) fund research on medical rehabilitation model systems; (C) coordinate the Center's work with similar work at other federal agencies (including other NIH agencies) and at other public and private groups; (D) support multidisciplinary rehabilitation research funded by more than one agency; (E) with the Institute's advisory council's input and the NIH Director's approval, (i) create extra technical and scientific peer review groups beyond those under section 282(b)(16), and (ii) appoint their members — these groups are not subject to the term limits in Chapter 10 of title 5; and (F) support medical rehabilitation research and training centers. (2) In doing this, the Center's Director may give grants and enter into cooperative agreements and contracts. (d) Research Plan: (1) Working with the Institute's Director, a coordinating committee (subsection (e)), and an advisory board (subsection (f)), the Center's Director must write a comprehensive Research Plan for conducting, supporting, and coordinating medical rehabilitation research. (2) The Research Plan must (A) identify current federally funded medical rehabilitation research, opportunities and needs for more research, and research priorities; (B) recommend how to coordinate research funded by NIH and other federal agencies; and (C) set goals and objectives for conducting, supporting, and coordinating this research, matching the purpose in subsection (b). (3)(A) Within 18 months of the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Amendments of 1990 becoming law, the Institute's Director had to send the Research Plan to the NIH Director, who submits it to the President and Congress. (B) This step happens independently of the reporting process required under sections 283 and 284b. (4) Working with the same Institute's Director, coordinating committee, and advisory board, the Center's Director must periodically revise and update the Research Plan — at least every 5 years — and send the updated Plan, within 30 days of the update, to the President and the relevant Senate and House committees. (5) Before updating the Plan, the Center's Director, with the Institute's Director, must write a report for the coordinating committee and advisory board describing and analyzing the past year's progress toward the Plan's goals, including rehabilitation research spending at NIH. This report must recommend Plan updates and other initiatives the Center's and Institute's Directors think fit, prepared in consultation with the NIH Director. (e) Medical Rehabilitation Coordinating Committee: (1) The NIH Director must set up a Medical Rehabilitation Coordinating Committee (the "Coordinating Committee"). (2) The Coordinating Committee must periodically host a scientific conference or workshop on medical rehabilitation research, and recommend to the Institute's and Center's Directors what the Research Plan should say and how the Center should work with other NIH and federal agencies. (3) Its members are the Director of NIH's Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives; the Center's Director; the Institute's Director; the Directors of the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and other research institutes and federal agency representatives the NIH Director thinks fit. (4) The Center's Director chairs the Coordinating Committee. (f) National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research: (1) Within 90 days of the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Amendments of 1990 becoming law, the NIH Director had to set up a National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research (the "Advisory Board"). (2) The Advisory Board reviews and assesses federal research priorities, activities, and findings on medical rehabilitation research, and advises the Center's and Institute's Directors on the Research Plan. (3)(A) The NIH Director appoints 18 qualified public representatives who are not federal officers or employees: 12 must represent health and scientific fields related to medical rehabilitation, and 6 must represent people undergoing, or needing, medical rehabilitation. (B) Ex officio members include the Directors of the Center; the Institute; the National Institute on Aging; the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; the Director of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives; the Commissioner for Rehabilitation Services Administration; the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs); and the Under Secretary for Health at Veterans Affairs. (4) The appointed members choose one of themselves to chair the Advisory Board. (g) Review and coordination of medical rehabilitation research programs: (1) The Secretary and other federal agency heads must jointly review their medical rehabilitation research programs (existing or proposed) and, as appropriate, agree to prevent duplicate programs. (2) The Secretary must, as appropriate, make interagency agreements to coordinate medical rehabilitation research between NIH agencies and other federal agencies. (h) "Medical rehabilitation research" defined: For this section, the term means the science of mechanisms and treatments that prevent, improve, restore, or replace lost, underdeveloped, or worsening body function.