The Crisis in Clinical Research: Encouraging Youth to Pursue Clinical Research by Publicizing the 'Public Good'

摘要

Whereas the private sector in general is focused on product research, basic discovery research-whether it involves the laboratory or patients-is a public good. Quite simply, society must invest in basic discovery research because no one else will. Fragile and requiring constant attention, this research becomes a public good in part because it requires so much time and patience. A recent summary of clinical advances1 reported that the research process-from fundamental initial discovery to routine application in clinical practice-takes an average of 17 years. The private sector does not have such a long time frame. Therefore, we rely on the public sector to support research, especially in its early stages.