What You Need to Know
The Hackensack Meridian Health Research Institute (HMHRI) formed this year to bring together the departments and areas of expertise across Hackensack Meridian Health.
By the numbers, the HMHRI has:
- ~3,600: Number of HMH researchers
- 250+ Principal Investigators with active studies
- 1,000+: Number of active studies
- 600+: Number of open clinical trials
The HMHRI counts among its recent developments:
- Over the past four years, HMH has more than tripled its externally-sponsored research portfolio across the translational research continuum, as its research grant expenditures and industry clinical trials revenue increased from $31.1M in 2019 to over $100 million in 2022.
- Thematic areas of current research strength for HMH (based on externally sponsored funding) are infectious disease, cancer, genetics and epigenetics, pediatrics, neurosciences, and aging. These span all the care transformation services (CTSes) across HMH: oncology, neuroscience, womens and Childrens, rehab, musculoskeletal, behavioral health and cardiovascular.
- The Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) has grown to encompass more than 155 scientists and support personnel, over its first three years. The institution is funded by $165 million in research commitments over the next five years through government, pharmaceutical, biotech, and foundation sectors, as well as private philanthropy. Among this funding is a major NIH grant - $65 million over the first three years - secured in May 2022 to establish a new program to discover antiviral drugs in response to COVID-19 and other pathogens.
- Hackensack Meridian Health researchers published more than 261 publications on COVID-19 over the first two years of the pandemic - a growing literature contributing to virtually every facet of our knowledge about the virus and how to diagnose, treat, and manage it.
- Among these pandemic advances were diagnostics, viral variant screening, and the development of therapies by the CDI, which assisted the state’s largest comprehensive health network on the clinical side of the pandemic fight.
- Part of the vision is to bring together nursing research across HMH. Plans include forming a Center to integrate the nurse-scientist research from across the network, providing a home for the development of nursing science.
- The HMHRI is also focused on the critical factors of diversity, equity and inclusion; areas of focus that address health issues of minority populations, and outreach that will strengthen connections between the Research Institute and the communities served by HMH. The health network has a Population Health Science program (inclusive of outcomes research, implementation science, health equity, and SDOH) - all of which is of especial focus within the RI.
- The HMHRI is establishing a centralized model across HMH, bringing together a dynamic research environment that has a different culture than the clinical enterprise and requires investments in infrastructure, processes, standard operating procedures, and tools to ensure optimal value, accountability, and performance.