Biomedical science as it is practiced today in the United States in academic institutions is largely an enterprise, and a very large enterprise, supported with public funds from the national government. Due to the real risks for lapses in safety or ethics and the appropriate expectation for some form of accountability, research supported by money from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other federal sources is expected to comply with rules and regulations intended to minimize the chances for breaches in safety or ethics or for inappropriate use of research funding. While many of these regulatory regimes are well-intentioned, collectively, they have come to represent an immense burden that stifles creativity and discourages timely implementation of research ideas resulting from new insights or inspirations.
The ever-growing list of annual re-training classes, forms to be filled out, and other requirements may vary...
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Image: flickr/linkurl:victoriapekham;http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapeckham/ |
linkurl:Neil Greenspan;http://path-www.path.cwru.edu/information6.php?info_id=22 is an immunologist and professor of pathology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and director of the Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory of University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The opinions expressed above are solely his own and do not reflect official views of the institutions with which he is affiliated.
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