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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1962 (1962) |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | National Institutes of Health |
| Website | www |
TheEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is one of theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) in theUnited States Department of Health and Human Services. It supports and conductsresearch aimed at improving the health of children, adults, families, and communities, including:
The impetus for NICHD came from the Task Force on the Health and Well-Being of Children, convened in 1961 and led by Dr. Robert E. Cooke, a senior medical advisor to PresidentJohn F. Kennedy.Eunice Kennedy Shriver also served on the task force, which reported that more research was needed on the physical, emotional, and intellectual growth of children.
TheU.S. Congress established NICHD in 1962 as the first NIH institute to focus on the entire life process rather than on a specific disease or body system. NICHD became a funding source for research on birth defects and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs), created a new pediatrics specialty, and established IDDs as a field of research. The institute also focused on the idea that adult health has its origins in early development and that behavior and social science were important aspects of human development.[2]
On December 21, 2007, by act of Congress (Public Law 110–54), NICHD was renamed theEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in honor of Mrs. Shriver's vision, dedication, and contributions to the founding of the institute.[3]
Past directors from 1963–present:[4]
| No. | Portrait | Director | Took office | Left office | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Robert A. Aldrich | March 1, 1963 | October 1964 | |
| 2 |  | Donald Harting | July 8, 1965 | 1966 | |
| 3 |  | Gerald D. LaVeck | October 9, 1966 | September 1, 1973 | |
| Acting |  | Gilbert L. Woodside | September 1, 1973 | September 1, 1974 | |
| 4 | | Norman Kretchmer | September 1, 1974 | September 30, 1981 | |
| Acting | | Betty H. Pickett | September 30, 1981 | June 30, 1982 | |
| 5 |  | Mortimer B. Lipsett | July 1, 1982 | January 7, 1985 | |
| 6 |  | Duane Alexander | February 5, 1986 | September 30, 2009 | |
| Acting |  | Susan Shurin | October 1, 2009 | November 30, 2009 | [5] |
| Acting |  | Alan Edward Guttmacher | December 1, 2009 | July 21, 2010 | [6] |
| 7 | July 22, 2010 | September 30, 2015 | [7][8] | ||
| Acting |  | Catherine Y. Spong | October 1, 2015 | October 31, 2016 | [9] |
| 8 |  | Diana W. Bianchi | November 1, 2016 | April 2025 | [10] |
| Acting |  | Alison Cernich | April 2025 | Present | [11] |
Themission of NICHD is to ensure that every person is born healthy and wanted, that women suffer no harmful effects from reproductive processes, and that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives, free from disease or disability, and to ensure the health, productivity, independence, and well-being of all people through optimal rehabilitation.[12]
As of November 2016, the director of NICHD isDiana W. Bianchi.[13]
NICHD's budget in 2015 was an estimated $1.3 billion, which supported research at institutions, universities, and organizations throughout the world, as well as research conducted by NICHD scientists on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD, and at other facilities.
Source:[14]
TheNational Children's Study (NCS) was a longitudinalcohort study that planned to recruit participants from across the United States of America. The NCS was led by theNational Institutes of Health, with the NICHD serving as the scientific lead. It was intended to measure the many factors that contribute tohealth and disease from before birth through age 21. This included, but was not limited to, the search for drivers of diseases with prenatal or developmental origins. The Study was closed in December 2014.[15][16]
Within NICHD, the NCS Program Office administered the implementation of day-to-day Study operations. The Program Office was supervised by the Study Director, Steven Hirschfeld, MD, PhD Associate Director for Clinical Research, NICHD.
For advice and recommendations regarding Study framework, content, and methodologies, the NCS Program Office engaged external advisors and scientific groups. These groups included federal partners such as the NCS Federal Advisory Committee and a Federal Consortium with representatives from multiple federal agencies including: theU.S. Department of Health and Human Services, theNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, and theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency. An independent Study Monitoring and Oversight Committee monitored study progress and participant safety.
In addition to these more formal channels, the NCS solicited feedback from subject matter experts from around the world and from individuals, community advocates, and professional societies concerned with child health. The NCS Program Office also provided public forums for input on a variety of initiatives.[17]
The "President's Task Force on Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children" recommended this federal initiative in 1999, after which Congress passed theChildren's Health Act of 2000 (Title X, Section 1004). The Act charged NICHD to:
The Act required this NCS to:
The NCS was designed to examine the effects of the environment—broadly defined to include factors such as air, water, diet, sound, family dynamics, community, and cultural influences— andgenetics on the growth,development, and health of children across the United States. The NCS was designed to follow approximately 100,000 children, some from before birth, through age 21 years. The NCS planned to collect comprehensive information to:
With this broad perspective, the NCS was designed to contribute to the implementation of health equity, where each individual has an opportunity to realize their health potential.[19]
The NCS was in its Vanguard, orpilot phase, which was designed to assess the feasibility, acceptability, cost, and utility of Study scientific output, logistics, and operations prior to initiating the Main Study. The Vanguard Study enrolled about 5,000 children in 40 counties across the United States. General recruitment was completed in July 2013.
On December 12, 2014, the National Children's Study closed, after an expert review committee advised the NIH Director that moving forward with the larger Main Study would not be the best way to add to the understanding of how environmental and genetic factors influence child health and development.[20]
NICHD has made numerous contributions to improving the health of children, adults, families, and communities. Selected research advances from 2015 include improving the health of infants born preterm, encouraging healthy behaviors, and optimizing rehabilitation.[21]
has too many flaws to be carried out in a tight budget environment, advisers today told National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins. He announced he is dismantling the study immediately.
I am appointing Dr. David Murray, NIH Associate Director for Prevention, effectively immediately, to manage the orderly transition of the NCS program office and closure of the study.
Media related toEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at Wikimedia Commons
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