Progress in Arrhythmia and Sudden Cardiac Death lesearch Support

摘要

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was a season of darkness, it was a season of light...". This schismatic opening of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, published the same year Einthoven was born, provides perspective on the sometimes extraordinary consequences of social and political change on a range of activities spanning from law to the pursuit of science in medicine. Although Dickens had in mind contrasts between what was occurring in England and in France in the eighteenth century, his depiction of the ways progress is affected in "times of plenty" versus "times of hardship" is also one that helps in understanding how biomedical research has changed over recent decades. Dickens's view of events in his time are also instructive in understanding the impact of the various "evolutionary" and "revolutionary" changes that have occurred in how research is financed and managed, and how changes in the public's perception and willingness to participate in this process have such an enormous impact on its success.