The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) held its annual extramural Scientific Planning Retreat on April 13, 2015. NIAMS leadership, extramural program directors, and other NIAMS staff discussed

• Strategies for further supporting arthritis, musculoskeletal, and skin researchers through the Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Investigator Award (K08) and Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) programs.
• Needs and opportunities that emerged from roundtable discussions with the extramural research community on
  • The Role of Disc Degeneration in Neck and Back Pain
  • Opportunities and Challenges in Developing 3-Dimensional Human Tissue Models to Study Musculoskeletal and Skin Physiology and Pathophysiology
  • Scleroderma: Advancing Potential Drugs to Patient Care
• Approaches for encouraging investigators to propose innovative, transformative research in NIAMS-mission areas.
• Potential intersections between NIAMS-supported cohorts and NIH-led components of the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative.