WIKIMEDIA, STETHOSCOPESMedical research has vastly improved the health of average Americans and has bolstered both the length and quality of their lives. The statistics from federally funded research are compelling: the survival rate for children with the most common childhood leukemia is now 90 percent, the five-year breast cancer survival rate has increased from 75 percent in the mid 1970s to 90 percent in 2011, chronic disability among American seniors has dropped nearly 30 percent since 1982, and the list goes on. Few would deny the social and economic benefits of medical advances made possible through research. After all, healthier Americans are more productive, and the academic research enterprise itself supports many jobs.
Still, recent trends call for the research community to revisit how we analyze and communicate the investment in and impact of research: new expectations and technologies such as social media platforms for advancing transparency, the national political and economic debate, and the engagement of patient advocacy groups in assessing research efficiency and impact.
These trends impact debates about federal funding at the national level, but there are also trickle down effects on universities, medical schools, and academic health systems across the US, where individual scientists and teams conduct research. Leaders at these institutions face increasing pressure to assess their investments in research and communicate the impact to their local stakeholders—state governors and legislators, boards of directors, community partners, patients, and their families. In these academic ...
