Public support for medical research in the 21st century

Key public policies that have contributed to the rise of modern medical research in the 20th Century are reviewed, focusing especially on the United States and the post-World War II period. Drawing on this history, the question is posed: "Are these policies sufficient to insure vigorous medical research in the 21st Century?" Although radical policy changes are not needed, several proposals for policy and medical research portfolio redirection are offered, including a rebalancing of public supported research in all fields of science that contribute to medical advances. Medical research must also invest in a national and international information infrastructure that will allow the linking of researchers, clinical experimenters, practicing physicians, and the public in ways heretofore not imagined. Medical researchers must be leaders and advocates for the whole research enterprise in the 21st Century.     

Embracing complexity: organicism for the 21st century.

Organicism (materialistic holism) has provided the philosophical underpinnings for embryology since the time of Kant. It had influenced the founders of developmental mechanics, and the importance of organicism to embryology was explicitly recognized by such figures as O. Hertwig, H. Spemann, R. Harrison, A. M. Dalq, J. Needham, and C. H. Waddington. Many of the principles of organicism remain in contemporary developmental biology, but they are rarely defined as such. A combination of genetic reductionism and the adoption of holism by unscientific communities has led to the devaluation of organicism as a fruitful heuristic for research. This essay attempts to define organicism, provide a brief history of its importance to experimental embryology, outline some sociologically based reasons for its decline, and document its value in contemporary developmental biology. Based on principles or organicism, developmental biology should become a science of emerging complexity. However, this does mean that some of us will have to learn calculus.     

Dental education: trends and assumptions for the 21st century

Dental educational institutions, as components of university systems, must develop strategic plans for program development, resource allocation, evaluation, and continued financial support. This dynamic process will be accomplished in a competitive academic arena where program excellence and program relevance are key issues in the game of survival. This article focuses on issues and trends that form the basis for planning assumptions and initiatives into the next decade and into the 21st century. This is our challenge, this is our mission if we are to be catalysts for change in the future.     

Comparative psychology, a new perspective for the 21st century: up the spiral staircase

This article responds to the continuing obituaries for Comparative Psychology. We understand the field to be a general psychology, a way of understanding the origins of all behavior of all species. We outline a methodological and conceptual foundation for comparative psychology to enter the new millennium-with an anagenetic and dynamic systems perspective. We see an important role to be played by comparative psychologists in managing resources, increasing our activity in social and political issues, and transcending our traditional role as the study of animal behavior to one that makes significant contributions to psychology and humanity by studying relationships between animals and changing environments, and by providing a historical perspective on human evolution.     

The relevance of occupational medicine to primary care in the 21st century

The relatively infrequent incidence of dramatic outbreaks of occupational disease, as occurred in the past, along with economic downturns, have lowered the medical altitude of the workplace as a risk factor for or determinant of disease and disability. However, in 2007 alone, there were more than 4 million nonfatal occupational illnesses in the United States. Equally relevant is the explosion in 2010 at a coal mine in West Virginia that left 29 workers dead. Not to be overlooked are the ongoing challenges to medical practitioners of managing workers' compensation cases. At the same time, the convergence of demographic changes, changes in the workplace structure, and emerging technologies are reinforcing the views of occupational medicine clinicians and other practitioners that occupational health must be integrated into primary care systems and that total separation of work-caused and nonwork-caused care is counterproductive and arbitrary. Therefore, basic principles, concepts, and procedures of occupational medicine must be integrated into the substrate of information and experience upon which students must depend on entering a medical career.     

Control of schistosomiasis: challenge and prospects for the 21st century

Schistosomiasis occurs throughout the developing world and remains a major public health problem in the poorest communities with enormous consequences for development. More than 200 million people are infected and this poverty-related disease is highly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The extent of the problem has long been neglected because the disease rarely kills and due to its insidious nature, signs and symptoms are taken seriously only after permanent impairment has occurred. Moreover; as many other poverty-related communicable diseases, schistosomiasis has been overshadowed by other health priorities. Today schistosomiasis control is a priority on the agenda of many governments, donors and international agencies. A momentum as well as an unprecedented opportunity do exist for cost-effective action. Importantly, the renewed impetus for schistosomiasis control throughout sub-Saharan Africa reinforces the need for operational research to improve our understanding of the disease. The strengthening of the national capacity in endemic countries, a greater commitment of governments and communities from these developing countries, and an efficient stakeholder coordination are vital for a successful and durable control. The paper highlights the current opportunities and challenge for schistosomiasis control for the 21st century. By working all together, we have a great opportunity to take up the challenge and to improve the health of the poor.