News & Updates

Released in January, the NICHD Strategic Plan 2025 lays out updated priorities to guide the institute’s research over the next five years. While our five major research goals are unchanged, we made substantial updates to reflect shifts in public health priorities and the evolution of new technologies.

NICHD announced winners of the first phase of its Community Champions for Disability Health Challenge, a prize competition that encourages community-based organizations to develop and implement strategies to reduce health disparities experienced by people with disabilities.

Each year, NICHD reflects on selected highlights from the past 12 months that demonstrate how public investment in research drives scientific progress and benefits human health. In 2024, NICHD research expanded knowledge of and enhanced care in women’s health, fetal and pediatric health, disabilities, rehabilitation, and more.

Read about select research advances supported by NICHD in 2024, including work on women’s health, child and adolescent health, medical rehabilitation, health disparities, and more.

NIH funded several studies to investigate how ableism—discrimination against people with disabilities—may influence health care of people with disabilities. Researchers will also investigate how to counter ableism’s negative effects.

The NICHD-funded Limb Loss and Preservation Registry is the first database of its kind to standardize, collect, measure, and report outcomes of clinical data for those providing support to the more than 5.6 million people living with limb loss or limb difference in the United States. Now under new stewardship, the registry is looking toward a new phase of growth.

As children head back to school, they must adapt to new routines and social situations. From expanding knowledge about sleep to assessing strategies to prevent school violence, NICHD research helps contribute to a safe and healthy learning environment.

NIH launched a new federal challenge to encourage community-based organizations to develop and implement strategies to reduce health disparities experienced by people with disabilities.

Summer’s long days and warm weather allow for more time spent outdoors, benefiting physical and mental health. But heat also can have harmful health effects, and outdoor recreation carries the risk of injuries. NICHD research seeks to understand the impacts of climate change, prevent drownings, and help ensure safe participation in summer sports.

Adolescents with a concussion who exercised more than 150 minutes a week slept better than those who exercised less, a study found. Better sleep may promote faster recovery from concussion.

A new surgical procedure that connects opposing muscles in below-knee amputations allows greater control of a robotic prosthesis. The procedure restores connection of opposing muscles, lost by the amputation procedure.

Inclusion of people with disabilities across the research enterprise—as leaders and members of the scientific workforce and as clinical research participants—is critical to ensuring that studies reflect the needs and desires of the people they seek to benefit. This Disability Pride Month, Dr. Bianchi discusses how community engagement is advancing Down syndrome research.

NIH’s BRAIN Initiative is marking a milestone—10 years of advancing neuroscience and neurotechnology research by funding innovative projects. Dr. Bianchi shares her perspective on the impact BRAIN has made on NICHD’s mission.

A step monitoring program for stroke survivors is more effective at spurring long-term physical activity than the traditional therapy of high-intensity walking. The step program appears to reduce the chances that stroke survivors will become sedentary after their therapy is complete, which increases the risk for future strokes.

In 2023, NICHD continued its commitment to research to understand human development, improve reproductive health, promote women’s health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all. Highlights include steps toward reducing the global burden of maternal sepsis and establishing a standard treatment for opioid-exposed newborns.

As we ring in 2024, we’d like to take a brief look back on our accomplishments during 2023. These activities illustrate the institute’s continued commitment to research and training in its mission areas.

Ableism—discrimination and social prejudice against those who are disabled—is a major contributor to the health disparities experienced by people with disabilities. Within NIH, NICHD has been at the forefront of efforts to address ableism in medicine and scientific research.

NIH has designated people with disabilities as a population with health disparities for research. People with disabilities often experience a wide and varying range of health conditions leading to poorer health and shorter lifespan. In addition, discrimination, inequality, and exclusionary structural practices, programs, and policies inhibit access to timely and comprehensive health care, which further results in poorer health outcomes.

NIH announced the launch of the design phase of a public-private partnership addressing the lack of medical devices designed and approved for children in the United States. In this initial phase, NIH and partners will develop a detailed plan to build and launch a partnership that will bring together the resources of U.S. government agencies and private sector organizations, including industry and non-profits.

Children with concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury, were no more likely to experience a drop in IQ scores after their injury than were children who received injuries to the muscles or bones, according to a study funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The findings suggest that concussion is unlikely to affect children’s intelligence in the long term, providing reassurance to caregivers of pediatric concussion patients.