Biomedical Science And Its Administration

The report says that important organizational changes are needed at the National Institutes of Health to ensure the agency meets future challenges effectively. In particular, the report advises NIH to devote additional resources to innovative interdisciplinary research that reflects its strategic objectives and cuts across all agency's institutes and centers. The report recommends that Congress should establish a formal process for determining how specific proposals for changes in the number of NIH agencies and centers should be addressed.

Most people who do a PhD and postdoctoral work in the biomedical sciences do not end up as principal investigators in a research lab. Despite this, graduate courses and postdoctoral fellowships tend to focus almost exclusively on training for bench science rather than other career paths. This book plugs the gap by providing information about a wide variety of different careers that individuals with a PhD in the life sciences can pursue. Covering everything from science writing and grant administration to patent law and management consultancy, the book includes firsthand accounts of what the jobs are like, the skills required, and advice on how to get a foot in the door. It will be a valuable resource for all life scientists considering their career options and laboratory heads who want to give career advice to their students and postdocs.

This volume brings together the views of authors involved in many aspects of biomedicine-from research on basic biology to clinical invest igation of the causes and treatment of human disease to hospital adminis tration ·to health care planning on the state and Federal levels to Con gressionallegislation covering biomedical research, medical education, the development of medical technology, and the delivery of health care. The purpose is not to present a "party line" representing a consensus of these often divergent viewpoints, and we do not suggest that we have found solutions to the many problems encountered in the interaction of scientists, administrators, legislators, and the recipients of health care. These articles are intended primarily to communicate to both biomedical scientists and intelligent laymen the processes, social and political as well as scientific, whereby biomedical science advances, and the need for biomedical scientists to take an interest and initiative not only in scientific research but also in research on health care delivery and in related public issues before the legislative and administrative branches of government.

Biomedicine in the Twentieth Century: Practices, Policies, and Politics is a testimony to the growing interest of scholars in the development of the biomedical sciences in the twentieth century and to the number of historians, social scientists and health policy analysts now working on the subject. The book is comprised of essays by noted historians and social scientists that offer insights on a range of subjects that should be a significant stimulus for further historical investigation. It details the NIH’s practices, policies and politics on a variety of fronts, including the development of the intramural program, the National Institute of Mental Health and mental health policy, the politics and funding of heart transplantation and the initial focus of the National Cancer Institute. Comparisons can be made with the development of other American and British institutions involved in medical research, such as the Rockefeller Institute and the Medical Research Council. Discussions of the larger scientific and social context of United States’ federal support for research, the role of lay institutions in federal funding of virus research, the consequences of technology transfer and patenting, the effects of vaccine and drug development and the environment of research discoveries all offer new insights and suggest questions for further exploration.