The last decades of the 20th century have witnessed the emergence of two quite distinct initiatives in medical science which physicians can ill afford to ignore. The Human Genome Project and allied successes in the identification of genes predisposing to common disorders such as breast cancer, have illustrated the potential dividend from a pooling of resources and samples to address questions beyond the reach of a single research team. Although lacking the glamour and allure of the Genome Project, the Cochrane Collaboration, which aims to systematically assemble, review and combine evidence on the outcomes of disease processes, and about what works and what doesn't work in clinical practice may have even greater ramifications for physicians in decades to come.
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