With an understanding of the kinds of programs and studies that receive NIH funding—including the top NIH recipient, Harvard University, with over $730 million a year—McCormick has helped MSUCOM create a new research center for the kinds of studies that will be competitive for NIH grants.

Headed by the new Walter F. Patenge Endowed Chair in Osteopathic Medicine, Malcolm Pope, DrMedSc, PhD, DSc, this new center will be devoted to neuromusculoskeletal research—especially the underlying mechanisms of manual medicine. It will be interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing on researchers and clinicians in a variety of departments and fields, and it will have as a resource a new, cutting-edge vertical MRI machine. To be housed in the radiology department in a new building slated for completion in 2003, the machine, which can image subjects standing upright—in their natural weight-bearing position—will be an invaluable asset in studies involving manual medicine, the spine, and the back.

The vertical MRI will enable the center for neuromusculoskeletal research to expand the possibilities of research at MSUCOM, and the center’s new director, Dr. Pope, has the research expertise to identify and develop the most competitive projects.

"Malcolm Pope is an extraordinarily talented researcher," Dr. McCormick explains. "He has spent his entire career in research. He will be able to compete at the NIH level because he’s competed there before. I expect that he will use his budget at the center as seed money for research projects that can then attract NIH-level funding."

The research credentials of the new occupant of the Walter F. Patenge Endowed Chair are certainly formidable. A bioengineer with expertise in ergonomics and spinal biomechanics, Dr. Pope is currently the chair of safety and health and the director of the Liberty Worksafe Centre at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and has served as president of the International Society of Study of the Lumbar Spine and the American Society of Biomechanics.

But perhaps most importantly, Dr. Pope understands the research priorities of the NIH because he helped the NIH establish its Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine over eight years ago. The NIH spends approximately $80 million annually funding studies on complementary and alternative medicines and procedures, and it has expressed specific interest in research into osteopathic manual medicine.

With his background, Dr. Pope certainly understands that the NIH is, in the words of Dr. McCormick, "extremely interested in osteopathic manual medicine." As an experienced researcher, Dr. Pope also understands that the NIH will be more interested in studies that attempt to identify the underlying mechanisms—and not just outcomes—of manual medicine. Traditionally, studies into the latter have dominated the profession. The new neuromusculoskeletal research center will attempt to change that, Dr. McCormick asserts.

Although Dr. Pope will bring to the center what Dr. McCormick calls "a nucleus of research experience," the research will involve all kinds of clinicians and researchers—including those outside of the osteopathic profession. The center will also bring together the diverse talents of MSUCOM’s various departments.

Dr. Pope and Dr. McCormick both know that over the years, the NIH has favored interdisciplinary projects with multiple investigators. It is simply the direction in which medical research is moving.