"When I sit on committees, I hear members of renowned research institutions stressing the need to carefully separate research from service," says Janet Mitchell, director of the special prenatal clinic at Harlem Hospital in New York. "That's the old thinking: research has to be isolated and protected. But that won't hold water with these new populations."
Mitchell says today's researchers must be able to show how their science contributes to clients' welfare in addition to increasing the world's storehouse of knowledge. " Women, drug users, minorities--they're more sophisticated than the research establishment gives them credit for," says Mitchell. "Their question is, `What are you giving in return? I'm interested in helping if you show me how it'll help me or my children. If you only want me to get your data and your funds, I'm not coming.' " Critics of the use of homogeneous study populations in clinical research charge ...
