BMJ Publishing Group to launch an international campaign to promote academic medicine

摘要

Academic medicine is in crisis across the world. Medicine's capacity to research, think, and teach is collapsing just at the time when science, social trends, and globalisation are offering great opportunities―and threats. The BMJ Publishing Group wants to help revitalise―and reinvent―academic medicine. How can academic medicine best prepare for the 21st century? We don't have an answer, but we propose a great debate. We are not even entirely clear on the diagnosis. Why is academic medicine failing? The increasing pressure to provide service is one cause. Faced with healthcare reforms and government retrenchment, clinical research programmes and funding have withered. Lack of financial incentives and increasing disillusionment about the prospects of a career in academic medicine have hampered efforts to recruit and retain faculty. Financial pressure on universities means that the brightest and most imaginative scholars come second to the scientists who bring in large sums from industry. Lack of rewards for good teachers poses a serious threat to future medical education and research.