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Introduction: Dollars and Disease
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11462 |
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MODERN THOUGHT
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4 / 1994 |
381 Words |
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Envision in your mind's eye, if you will, fabled medical researcher Louis Pasteur at work in his laboratory one afternoon, carefully inspecting a rack of test tubes.
With a frown of concentration, he selects one, holds it up to the light, and, unconsciously stroking his beard, peers deeply into the aquamarine solution for biological traces that could lead to a breakthrough in his research.
This is the picture that comes to perhaps most of us when we think of medical research--the incisive minds sifting data to discover empirical truth, the experimental drama, even the glamour, of sorts. Seldom, however, does it occur to us that great research must be fueled by a great deal of money. Indeed, the engine of science would virtually grind to a halt without the goodly gasoline of research dollars from government, foundations, and business.
But since the pool of such funds is finite, a problem emerges: Which of the almost endless number of medical research ideas most deserves to be underwritten financially? If the people holding the purse strings make unwise decisions, valuable resources will be wasted.
For many decades in the United States, the bulk of research funds has been disbursed by the federal government's National Institutes of Health (NIH). The agency's method for deciding which research to fund has been, almost everyone agrees, stunningly successful, for it has led to the control of many diseases and to the inauguration of an era of medical technology that has saved countless lives and dramatically increased longevity and that promises to do much more of the same in the fixture.
But NIH's method for allocating monies to worthy scientific projects has been undermined in recent years, according to many critics, by the increasing intrusion of pork-barrel politics.
This month, Currents in Modern Thought examines the issues involved in government funding of disease research. The article by Kristine Napier describes the funding scheme that has made American medicine arguably the best in the world. The piece by Andrea Case delves into political influences on the integrity of this funding scheme today.
The articles hopefully will shed light on the increasingly robust efforts by some lobbying groups and congressmen to fund research on a number of
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