Thank you, Andy. And we're going to open for questions, but I do want to kind of have, you know, one person in the audience kind of share about, you know, his program also. So Lee Osterman is actually from OIF. You can heard from multiple investigator. They actually started their career, started their first grant with OIF. And Lee, maybe share with a group about your program and how, you know, we could be involved in how we'd be like successful, you know, getting your grants. Yeah. Well, thank you, Ben and Lynette. This is a great session that you put on here. Thank you, Kurt, for the big plug for OIF earlier. I appreciate that. Really what I wanted to just expand upon was the discussion earlier about how to access the information that we have for the grants that we provide. So I would encourage all of you to go under our website, get on to our social media on Twitter and through our social media. We are continually posting when our applications are coming in, the dates that are coming up. In addition to that, OIF partners with over 60 MSK organizations. And when we hear about what they're offering for their grant applications as well, we help them get that word out. And it's not only that, it's the DOD and NIH and others. So that's a really good resource for you. Dr. Griswold mentioned about the NIAMS Coalition. I'm the co-chair of the NIAMS Coalition right now. And I would encourage you to sign up for our e-newsletter. That comes about once a month. And there are organizations there that post as well what they're offering for their applications. I guess the last thing I want to say is that at Chicago last year at the Academy meeting, there was a session for young investigators on how to access money to begin their careers in clinical research. And speaker after speaker got up there talking about how OREF kind of launched their career and got it started. And really made it sound like it was one of the very, very few places that you could get money to start your research career. And I sat there as CEO of OREF feeling a great sense of pride hearing this. And by the end of the session, I had a great sense of sadness over this. Because I know the limitations that we have at OREF for the funding that we can offer. And when you look at what we represent collectively, MSK, what NIAMS is as well, by procedure numbers as well as by dollar numbers, we dominate healthcare. And yet the amount of research funding that is allocated to MSK is abysmal. It's incredibly low. And there's a disconnect there that needs to be corrected. So I guess part of the ask that I would have here of this group and others is that we all join collectively to, and we work together to approach our representatives in Congress and elsewhere to push for greater funding for MSK issues and research because it's so desperately needed to affect outcomes and to improve the healthcare of this nation. Anyway, that's all that I wanted to say. And if anybody has any questions, I'll be here. Lee, thank you over there. Lindsay? Can I just add to your point, what I've learned since I joined NIAMS is we can't go to members of Congress and say, we need money for X, Y, or Z. Please give us more money. We're not allowed to do that. But you can do that. And you can invite us to a session if you have an opportunity to speak to a representative or a congressional staff member, and we're delighted to do that. I go for any opportunity I have to speak with folks, but we can't initiate those things. We can't ask for money. We can't make our case except through you. So we're really counting on you to take the lead on that front. It's badly needed, as was pointed out. Well, members, take note on that over there. While people coming up raise questions, I do want to ask the panel, maybe to Martha, how did you come up with the question that you want to answer and to take you where you are right now? I think a lot of people in the audience say, I don't want to study. What is your journey like over there? Maybe give a little 10,000-feet view about what happened 20 years ago. You're nice, 20 years ago. For me, it was really always about the clinical problem. I was a graduate student in engineering, and I was at a party one night, and this guy came in on crutches, and I said, oh, my gosh, what happened? I was skiing. I tore my ACL. I said, oh, are they going to go sew it back together? He was a very smart med student. He said, you dumb engineer, you can't sew the ACL back together. They have to take a grafted tendon out of the back of my leg and put it through bone tunnels and put it in place with screws, and I'm on crutches for six weeks, and da, da, da, da. I was like, oh, my gosh, that sounds excessive. I just got really interested in why didn't the ACL heal? Why couldn't we get that to heal when there's so many other things in your body that heal? To Drew's point earlier, for me, it was always the question. Even if I only made it a little bit, even if I only kind of figured out what was some of the biology behind why it didn't heal, that was good enough. I just was really, really interested in the question. Thank you. Thank you. Questions? Audience? Yeah. You had a question earlier. Yes. I probably am going to ask my previous question tied to the talks that has been done here. I am international person. I came from Middle East. I have difficulty speaking English sometimes, and my technical writing isn't as good as I want it to be. That comes with the territory of immigrating from another country to another country. I can add on the top of that, I had the experience of studying my PhD in a country outside United States. Then I came to the United States and became a faculty member, and now I'm trying to write grants that are compelling enough to be funded by eminent organizations such as NIAMS and DOD and ORIF, et cetera. For me, maybe it is resonating with some other people that are sitting here, the problem that I'm facing is sometimes understanding the basics of how to relay my question in a concise manner that can attract attention so that the rest of the things that you guys are talking about will emerge out of it. I wanted to just bring it back down to the level that I'm experiencing things. What I would benefit from would be exposure to being on the study sections and seeing how it is done, which NIAMS is providing very well, but I had difficulty figuring out how can I do it with Department of Defense, or I don't know at all how can I approach it in ORIF to understand, to sit on the panel, to understand how things, or shadow people, like just sit there and figure out how these things are figured out, how they're discussed, how they're decided. I don't know, it might be only me, but I feel like that's the thing that helps my career the most, to figure out what's going on internally in those conversations so that I can build myself up to become a good writer. So it might come across as a little bit of monologue here, but I wanted to ask whoever can help with this process to provide avenue, just like NIAMS did, for us to learn, because I'm eager to learn, and I don't know where to start, excepting from NIAMS, I don't know where to start with ORIF or AOSSM or other funding organization or DOD. I don't know where to start to understand how to write my research question. Yeah. Andy? Yeah. I hear you. I hear you, and you certainly have a unique experience, given everything you've been through. And kudos to you for being interested, given all that. I think it's a great opportunity for me also to plug the career, what is it? Clinician Sciences. Clinician Sciences Career Development Program. I always have to get it started. And so I'm an alumnus of that program, and I cannot speak enough about how much I learned during that two-day event that hit every single one of the points that you lamented as things that you needed to work on, because I was in the exact same spot, well, not the exact same spot, but from the standpoint of being an early investigator, there was so much to learn how to write an aims page, how to write a compelling justification, how to find the mechanism and align what it is that you're interested with a focus area. And so that's a program that's an absolutely must, I think. Yeah, and I would add to it, too, is that there are society-level involvement you could be in, for example, Research Committee at AOSSM, that you could actually start some of these, at least help review grants in a more society-level, lower-level grant funding opportunity. Then once you get experience, you could actually work with folks at OEF, at least program, ACUNA, and maybe even go to NHL. So I think the opportunities are there, and some of them shared today, but we're happy to share more. So, Lindsey? Yeah. And I can add your English is very good, it's very good. I would encourage you to inquire at your institution about access to a scientific writing coach. Your institution will benefit if you're successful with grant applications, and increasingly that sort of coaching is available, so that's something that I would suggest you look into for more personalized support. So I'm looking at Lynette at the end over there. Lynette always makes me finish on time over there, so we're actually right at 3.30, but I'm going to take one minute here, Lynette, okay? One advice from each individual, for the folks, just one advice coming from it. Drew, what are your advice for people? I mean, it's probably very simple, but I would say don't give up, because I think it was mentioned earlier, but most grant submissions will be rejected, and if you take that as like, my idea's bad, my style's bad, like, then that's going to be the end, but it's just learn from it, don't take it personally, repackage it, resubmit. Lynette, we'll write these down, these are all take-home messages. Martha? I would just say, again, try to find a clinical problem that you're really interested in helping find a solution to, because that's what'll get you up in the morning. Passion. Passion. Rick? Ask for help. Don't write in a vacuum, don't submit a grant that hasn't been read by somebody outside of sports medicine, because assumptions you make are that everyone knows this, that grant may be read by a trauma person, or someone that just doesn't know sports. And there's tons of people around that, if you get a grant to them and give them a little bit of warning and enough time to read it, are happy to read it, give feedback, and starting with your specific aims page. You hear when you're getting ready to write grants that the specific aims grant sinks or wins, and you don't like the sound of that, because you go, right, I'll write this big long grant, but you better have a compelling hook in that first page, and get some help to write it. So just ask for help, don't work in a vacuum. Pierre Helms over here, Andy, last one. Just love the process, love the process. Even though it can be painful sometimes, I love the process. Volker? I'd just like to add one, you didn't ask me, but find a mentor. You can call someone out on that, okay? You must have a mentor. Find one, don't be shy. So I wouldn't be here without Freddy Fu, Jay Ehrgang, Ben Ma, right over there, and many others. Actually, you need mentors, because no single person can provide all of the support and advice that you'll need, so. Thank you, thank you. And thank you for all the speakers, really appreciate you sharing experience, and for the members, this is a new format. Give us comments, we're gonna hopefully deliver better programs for you all, so really appreciate you coming today. Thank you, yeah.

Dr. Lee Osterman

Orthopaedic Institute Foundation

grants

funding

MSK research