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Campaign to revitalise academic medicine calls for radical thinking
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     A campaign to breathe new life into academic medicine has called for a radical rethink on the way medical research is organised in order to capture global health issues that matter to patients and make a difference to their lives.

    More than 90 researchers, educators, policy makers, clinicians, and funders from around the world gathered for the campaign's inaugural meeting this week at BMA House. Their aim was to define the future of academic medicine, which they say is threatened by lack of funding and facilities and poor career prospects. The campaign, which was launched last November by the BMJ, has so far attracted the involvement of more than 20 international journals and organisations.

    Delegates at the meeting agreed that the time for an ivory tower attitude had passed, and that modern academic medicine required transparency, leadership, and a community and patient focus to gain better understanding and support from the public.

    Professor David Weatherall said there was potential to develop basic science to help patients across the globe

    Credit: MARK THOMAS

    Many delegates expressed frustration with the direction of most research, which continues to address health issues that affect a minority of the world's population. "With the advent of SARS and bioterrorism, medicine has moved into a one world health," said Tim Evans, an assistant director general of the World Health Organization. "It is important to recognise the latent and growing demand for engagement in global health."

    Professor David Weatherall, emeritus regius professor at the University of Oxford, welcomed the initiative as an important opportunity with great potential to develop basic science for the benefit of patients across the globe.

    An international working party of 20 individuals from the meeting will continue discussions over the next week and develop recommendations to take the campaign forward. It will publish the recommendations ahead of a second meeting next year.(Zosia Kmietowicz)