Biomedical Research Training Research Articles

Is the academic physician-scientist an oxymoron in contemporary obstetrics and gynecology?

Because of changes in health care reimbursement and decreasing federal funding, academic obstetrics and gynecology is at a pivotal point. Either the discipline can regress to the past, when the field and its practitioners were viewed negatively and failed to attract the academic upper echelons of medical students, or it can build on the immense gains it has made in recent years and develop a critical cadre of well-trained clinician-scientists who maintain the discipline at the leading edge of medicine and biology. Data from two programs in which extensive contemporary training in biomedical research is provided, the Reproductive Scientist Development Program and the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Foundation fellowship program, indicate that the superb physician-scientists in these programs are obtaining peer-reviewed funding in excess of 70%. Thus the risk of recruiting such individuals to academic faculties is small. More important, these individuals are the linchpins for an even more exciting future. The alternatives are unthinkable. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1997;177:892-3)

NIDCD Research in Human Communication

The mission of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) is to support and conduct biomedical and behavioral research and research training on normal mechanisms as well as diseases and disorders of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. The National Strategic Research Plan, developed in 1989, guides the research supported and conducted by the Institute in each of its seven areas of interest. Each year two sections of the plan are updated. The chemical senses section of the plan was updated in January 1993. Some of the research goals, opportunities, and priorities in olfaction recommended by the panel are presented. Several examples of NIDCD-supported olfactory research are also highlighted. Research opportunities for foreign scientists in the Institute's intramural laboratories are outlined along with opportunities for international collaborations through the NIDCD. NIDCD funding for chemosensory research is provided.

Biomedical research training must remain a priority

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A case that biomedicine is unduly negative to radical hypotheses and to theorizing—Evidence based on cardiology's reaction to the spasm of resistance vessel concept and on the nature of scientific research

This communication will attempt to make a case that biomedicine is unduly negative to radical hypotheses and to theorizing. Evidence will be based on a proposed undue negativity by cardiology to a radical hypothesis I first described two and a half decades ago—the spasm of resistance vessel (S-RV) concept of ischemic heart disease (IHD). The theory is regarded as an alternate paradigm and deals with basic pathogenetic mechanisms of IHD, the most significant disorder of Western civilization. The concept, if valid, might help in reducing the impact of this disorder, and I believe that the evidence for the theory and the importance of IHD support a more open minded attitude toward the idea. Cardiology's negativity is attributed to the nature of research; the most important factor is considered to be the Kuhnian negativity of scientific communities to hypotheses which are destructive of conventional wisdom, and a second factor is the special nature of biomedical research. Biomedicine is regarded as special because a low level of specific information about complex biomedical processes has fostered an essentially total study-based approach. Such an approach is assumed to have resulted in biomedicine's use of induction as ‘the’ method of scientific inquiry, and prompted negativity towards the hypothetico-deductive method used to develop and test the theory. Also, the study-based nature of biomedicine appears to have fostered an intuitive reliance on only newly performed studies to test hypotheses, which led to ignoring evidence for the concept derived from known information about IHD. Biomedicine is also regarded as special because its infrequent use of paradigm-change has resulted in unfamiliarity with this method, and because the practical method of training in biomedical research has worsened the general unfamiliarity of scientists with theoretical aspects of science. Because of these factors, the S-RV concept has not yet been properly evaluated—a quarter of a century after it was first created.

Highlights of the National Institutes of Health Program in Biomedical and Behavioral Nutrition and Research Training—with the emphasis on total parenteral and enteral nutrition

Highlights of the National Institutes of Health Program in Biomedical and Behavioral Nutrition and Research Training—with the emphasis on total parenteral and enteral nutrition

Books Received

This book, an amplification of invited lectures given at Carleton College and the University of Minnesota in 1977, is really three-books-in-one (in five chapters). The first section describes the historic and anthropologic character of mankind's (continuing) relationship with symbiotic, and later domesticated, herd-animals; the second part traces “comparative healing” (the technical and religio-philosophical interdependance of animal and human medicine) from pre-dynastic, nilotic Egypt, Mesoptamia, Iran and India through the classic Egyptian period to the Greeks, Arabs, the Salerno School, the Renaissance and the foundation of both modern veterinary and human medicine. The final segment concerns itself with veterinary contributions (often unrecognized or neglected) to human medicine and welfare combined with the author's concept of a synergistic educational blend, a truly “Comparative Medicine,” and how it could be applied to the problem of biomedical research-training.Readers who liked “King Tut” will be enchanted by the treasure-trove of the first and second sections (three chapters), which are based both upon a review and interpretation of published works and in part on the author's travels.

Cattle, Priests, and Progress in Medicine

This book, an amplification of invited lectures given at Carleton College and the University of Minnesota in 1977, is really three-books-in-one (in five chapters). The first section describes the historic and anthropologic character of mankind's (continuing) relationship with symbiotic, and later domesticated, herd-animals; the second part traces “comparative healing” (the technical and religio-philosophical interdependance of animal and human medicine) from pre-dynastic, nilotic Egypt, Mesoptamia, Iran and India through the classic Egyptian period to the Greeks, Arabs, the Salerno School, the Renaissance and the foundation of both modern veterinary and human medicine. The final segment concerns itself with veterinary contributions (often unrecognized or neglected) to human medicine and welfare combined with the author's concept of a synergistic educational blend, a truly “Comparative Medicine,” and how it could be applied to the problem of biomedical research-training. Readers who liked “King Tut” will be enchanted by the treasure-trove of the first and second sections (three chapters), which are based both upon a review and interpretation of published works and in part on the author's travels.

Changing postdoctoral career patterns for biomedical scientists.

Between 1973 and 1977 the total number of Ph.D.'s holding postdoctoral appointments in the biomedical sciences increased at a rate of more than 550 individuals (12.5 percent) per year. During this same period the total number of doctorates awarded each year in these disciplines showed very little change. The postdoctoral growth can be attributed to substantial increases in both the numbers of recent graduates taking postdoctorals and the length of stay on these appointments. The lack of alternative employment opportunities has contributed heavily to the postdoctoral buildup. Continued growth is likely to have important consequences for biomedical research and research training.

The training of manpower needed for biomedical research.

Increased federal interest in the health of the American people implies federal support not only of biomedical research but also of training the personnel competent to carry out that research. Mechanisms to implement support biomedical research training include institutional training grants, individual fellowships, training grants, training as part of research grants and contracts, and self-support with assistance by federal loans when necessary. Of these, the institutional grants provide the best mechanism since they are most likely to produce stable, high-quality scholarly programs that are continuously under peer review, and since they allow central direction of the mix of disciplines based on monitoring of current and projected requirements.

Current Topics In Biochemistry.

The book is based on a series of lectures held at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md during September 1971. The purpose of the seminars was to give up-to-date information about basic scientific research to young physicians who came to NIH for advanced training in biomedical research. The book consists of seven chapters, each written by an authority in the field. Titles and authors are: "Genetics of Abnormal Lipid Metabolism" by R. O. Brady; "RNA-Dependent NAD Polymerases of RNA-Containing Viruses" by E. M. Scolnick; "Current Directions in Research on Cyclic AMP" by I. H. Pastan; "The Chemistry and Biology of Collagen" by K. A. Piez; "Muscle Proteins and Muscle Contraction" by W. F. Harrington; "Cell Surface Receptor Sites" by M. Rodbell; and "Membrane Structure and Function" by S. Roseman. The book uses photographs, figures, and tables abundantly that are very helpful in reading. However, due to the highly specialized