Career In Medical Research Research Articles

How to tell the truth and avoid the urge to lie: Planning a career in medical research

How to tell the truth and avoid the urge to lie: Planning a career in medical research

Early detection of cutaneous malignant melanoma in Britain.

A multidisciplinary approach to research has been one of the hallmarks of Walter Holland's outstanding career in medical research. Studies arising from evaluation of the Cancer Research Campaign's health education programme for the early detection of cutaneous malignant melanoma were reviewed at Walter's Festschrift because they illustrate the importance of the multidisciplinary approach and raise issues about medical screening which has been a special interest of Walter's The programme took place in 1987 in seven areas of England and Scotland with a target population of 3.6 million. The main aim of the evaluation study is to investigate the effect of the programme on mortality from melanoma. Interim effects on awareness about melanoma, workload and incidence rates of melanoma by stage are reviewed. The importance of collaboration between dermatologists, epidemiologists, histopathologists and health education specialists has been essential. However, the effectiveness of high profile campaigns alone to promote early detection of melanoma is uncertain and future initiatives should be evaluated in randomized controlled trials.

Canadian medical research strategy for the eighties: II. Promise or performance as the basis for the distribution of research funds?

It is widely accepted that public funds for medical research should be distributed to those who can best state what they propose to do with the funds. This should ensure ultimate public control over how the funds are spent, responsible budgeting on the part of the researcher and optimal progress in the understanding of disease. In this article it is argued that this “promise” system of distributing funds achieves none of these objectives. The primary basis for the distribution of funds should not lie in the imaginary world of future promise; which is difficult to evaluate and leads to a hyperpoliticization of the funding process. Instead, funds should be distributed on the basis of the real world of past research and budgetary performance. The “performance” approach lends itself well to a situation inwhich the majority of medical researchers have a long term commitment to a sustained career in medical research, a stable level of expenditure and a record of the effectiveness with which they have spent past funds.

FLORENCE RENA SABIN, "FIRST LADY" OF COLORADO.

Florence Rena Sabin was born in 1871 in Central City, Colo., a mining camp with a greater interest in a quick fortune than in scholarship and education. The town was scarcely a favorable environment for a young girl who was destined for a rich career in medical research and as a proponent of equitable rights for women in medicine and politics. Before Florence permanently retired, she had made important contributions in medical investigation and in medical teaching in the East, whereas in her native state she was largely responsible for the drafting and promulgation of public health measures that were desperately needed.¹ The discovery of gold and silver deposits in the West in the second half of the 19th century attracted her father, the son of a New England physician, who came as a mining engineer to Colorado from Vermont. Florence's mother, a former school teacher, died when Florence

Clinical Evaluation of New Drugs.

Ten to twenty years ago, if a novice wished to undertake an experiment or thought of a career in medical research his first move would be to get advice from someone who was actively engaged in such work. Apprenticeship was the initial step in this career. Little biographical material was available to indicate what might have been the motivating force of persons whose careers in clinical investigation were successful. There was no collection of advice or instructions. The do-it-yourself, trial-and-error system or lack of system prevailed, but now, in teaching, residency, and research, the rules are growing formal. One fixed route is followed by most, and here is a book which is a Baedeker for the beginner. In this new book devoted to many of the complex aspects of the clinical evaluation of new drugs, Waife and Shapiro have collected sixteen essays on the principles and practice of evaluating new