Amid a swirl of controversy over leadership, budget priorities, and stifling bureaucracy, the new organizational structure of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) went into effect October 1. The reorganization was prompted by internal, agency, and congressional studies.
Under the restructuring, many programs, laboratories, and branches fall under new or redesigned divisions, with an eye toward streamlining the agency, revamping its intramural program, and opening lines of communication.
FOCUS ON ATTENTION: The performance of the new NCI director Richard D. Kalusner is seen as the key to a successful institute reorganization.
COMMON SENSE: Vincent De Vita says NCI personnel have felt a leadership void.
Although the basics of the agency's reconfiguration have been known since August (E. Marshall, Science, 269:912-3, 1995; S. Stockwell, Oncology Times, 17(10):1, 1995), the laboratory and branch placement are so new that, at press time, some personnel within NCI were still unaware of where their sections fit ...
