(Hypertension. 2000;36:309.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.
Editorial |
A Renewed Call to Mentor
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Introduction |
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Over the past several years much concern has been expressed about the dwindling number of clinical scientists in the academic community.1 2 3 4 5 6 These are the individuals who are the necessary catalysts and experts that provide the fundamental understanding for problems presented clinically and, who then, transfer the available and developing basic information into the "cutting-edge" practice of clinical medicine. Many have raised their voices for increased research support, relief mechanisms from accumulated student loans, and other programmed support of newly trained MDs and MD, PhDs so that their academic investigative interests could be encouraged, nurtured, and satisfied. This, clearly, is of great importance because without this tangible interest by federal and other resources, the ranks of this markedly reduced cadre of clinical investigators will shift from the state of our present crisis to one of national disaster. One such response to this urgent need, by the National Institutes of Health, is a new category of research grants for beginning investigators, the K-08 source of support. This and other efforts are necessary, and they are definitely appropriate. These funding mechanisms are to be commended.
However, a number of years ago I urged, in another editorial venue,
that academic medicine should look to the retrieval of a number of able
and valued academic clinical scientists who could be of tremendous
assistance in this impending crises.7 At the time, I
referred to the large number of proven role models in academic medicine
who leave our academic community annually for the well-deserved
comforts of the
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  D. P. Faxon The Chain of Scientific Discovery: The Critical Role of the Physician-Scientist Circulation, April 16, 2002; 105(15): 1857 - 1860. [Full Text] [PDF]
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