Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, will step down as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on January 17, 2025, after serving approximately 14 months in the role, according to an NIH statement.

She assumed the role on November 9, 2023, serving as the agency's 17th director.

During her brief tenure, Dr. Bertagnolli launched several major initiatives, including Communities Advancing Research Equity for Health (CARE for Health), a primary care clinical research network pilot program designed to integrate research into routine clinical settings. She also oversaw the allocation of $200 million in fiscal year 2025 toward women's health research awards, with particular focus on health transitions during menarche, pregnancy, and menopause.

"No two communities are exactly alike. People in rural areas face different challenges than those in large cities. A one-size-fits-all solution to improving poor health will not work across the US," explained Dr. Bertagnolli in the statement announcing her departure.

Under her leadership, the NIH also expanded its long COVID research through the RECOVER-Treating Long COVID (RECOVER-TLC) initiative. This program incorporated input from more than 1400 stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, and researchers, and leveraged data from 40 pathobiology studies and 60 million electronic health records.

Dr. Bertagnolli, who is herself a breast cancer survivor, emphasized the development of an NIH health data ecosystem utilizing a "collect once, use many times" model to reduce provider burden and enhance data sharing. This initiative included expanding the National Library of Medicine's capacity for data hosting and implementing a federated architecture to facilitate data exchange using open-industry standards.

"While I leave NIH unable to see these initiatives and more through to fruition, I am optimistic that they will continue under new leadership," Dr. Bertagnolli stated.