Of all animal-rights issues, medical research is perhaps the thorniest. The human use of animals--for companionship, entertainment, food, clothing--always assumes a hierarchy, one that puts humans at the top or the center of either the evolutionary order, God's creation, or the food chain. Although most people can come to terms with the use of…

This essay examines the effects of commercialization on education with particular focus on corporatization of academic research. This trend results from a business model of education, which I identify as profit-based inquiry. I contrast profit-based inquiry with Nicholas Maxwell's conception of wisdom-based inquiry and conclude that the business…

Aside from the appeal to administrators as a tool to reduce costs by combining less robust departments with heftier relations, interdisciplinarity is a powerful idea because it implies that different branches of knowledge can benefit from talking to one another: a grand, unified theory of knowledge in which each discipline contributes building…

Medical scientists, doctors, and patients have different models of disease that cause doctor/patient communication problems. The patient model is reflected in the average American who is a high school graduate but who has little understanding of the human body and science. The model of the medical scientist is reflected in the typical graduate of…

Some of the uses of mathematics in biomedicine are listed and the problems involved in interdisciplinary biomathematical research are discussed. (MP)

An interpretation of the dollar dimension of medical progress, the role of nonmonetary factors in the equation, and suggestions for public policy are presented. Medical leadership must help formulate recommendations aimed at reductions in medical school enrollments, fee schedules for physicians, costly technology, etc. (MLW)

The goals of research, it is suggested, must reflect the needs of the times. Recent research showing that much disease and illness may be preventable is the impetus for government sponsorship of health promotion/disease prevention activities in the medical community. (MLW)

The debate about cost as it pertains to medical technology misses the mark by not pressing on the central problem of increased prevalence of chronic illness. Far from cost containment, what are needed are additional services which may in the end reduce total costs. (Author/MJL)

States that the ethics of using animals in science should be debated; however, the history of medicine is so clear on the contribution of animal usage to our understanding of the causes, preventions, and cures of diseases that only the untutored or those with a hidden agenda could argue that animal research has not been fundamental to medical…

This paper proposes that physicians' use of computerized medical information systems in the practice of medicine can assist delivery of cost-effective, high-quality patient care and help expand clinical research. However, benefits can be realized only if clinicians participate in system development and implementation and if senior institutional…

If society is to continue to progress and address problems of health, hunger, productivity, and economic opportunity, the biases against science and technology must be confronted. The financial support of medical research, it is suggested, must come from the private sector as well as the government. (MLW)

Reviews the renewed alliance between music educators and medical researchers in researching the learning process. Focuses on how music is used as therapy for disabled children and the research that enables teachers to provide effective instruction to special education students. Emphasizes the interdisciplinary courses that relate music and…

The role of the university in medical education, specifically, the education of the medical practitioner is discussed. The challenge is to connect better the practicing physician to the evolving knowledge base and the scientific agenda to the world of practice. (MLW)

With federal officials leading high profile efforts to encourage HIV/AIDS prevention and new funding, blacks in academia are hopeful that more colleagues will join the fight. Notes some well-established models of community education, the emerging HIV/AIDS research agenda, the critical role of historically black medical schools in the HIV…

A policy statement drafted by the Association of American Medical Colleges is presented that reviews the goals, environment, and mechanisms of support of biomedical and behavioral research.