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Open season for medical appeals
Volume3 Number2
EDITORIALS
227
“Each of these causes is worthy of public support and each campaign has been approved by the Mayor’s Co-ordinating Council For Fund Raising Campaigns. However, it is a safe assumption that four out of five of these campaigns will fail to raise the sums required to carry through next year the minimum programs they have established, and it is an equally safe assumption that all donors will complain about the number of appeals. “The Maryland Chapter of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation is most grateful for the support it has received during the last four years from the public and from the business and industry of Maryland. The chapter is convinced that by continuing to conduct separate fund campaigns the health organizations in Maryland are not only depriving themselves of adequate support, but are showing a lack of consideration to the public and the business establishments from which they seek funds. “It is the earnest hope of the Maryland Chapter of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation that before next fall the voluntary health organizations of Maryland will join together in a United Health Fund, and the chapter pledges to those who support its program this fall that the members of its board will continue their efforts of the last year to bring about a single health campaign that will result in more money for health control and research at less cost and, of equal importance, in less annoyance to those supporting these programs.” (Signed)
BURTON
M. PARKS,
Director, Maryland Chapter Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation
The Editor of The Sun replied to this letter in the adjoining Editorialcolumns, with the title and text which follows: OPEN SEXSON FOR MEDIGLAPPEALS
“A correspondent, Mr. Burton M. Parks, who is director of the Maryland Chapter of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation, raises a question which is as disturbing to the general public as it is to those who raise money for worthy causes. The Red Cross-Red Feather Joint Appeal drive has just been concluded. Immediately another drive begins, that of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation, and will conDuring that month there will also be drives for the tinue for a month. Muscular Dystrophy Fund, the Maryland Society for Mentally Retarded Children, the Maryland School for the Blind and the Maryland Others will come along when these have been Tuberculosis Association. concluded. “What bothers our correspondent is that this multiplicity of drives for medical ends tends to dull the responses of the giving public. When urgent pleas come thick and fast, they seem less urgent. Giving is done by caprice, and not necessarily to the most deserving cause. The success of a given drive depends more and more on the techniques of the publicity man and advertising agent. Cleverness begins to count more than worthiness. One obvious solution is to lump these medical drives together, as drives of another sort were originally lumped in the Community Fund. “There is another weakness in these medical drives which our It is that each of them tends to focus correspondent does not mention.
228
EDITORIALS
J. Chron. Dis. February, 1956
the philanthropic impulse on a single disease or group of diseases rather Implicit in each of them is than the whole field of medical research. the assumption that funds for its own projects are the crying need. “Funds for special projects are needed, beyond doubt. But ample funds for research in arthritis and rheumatism, in muscular dystrophy, problems of the mentally retarded and so forth don’t go very far if in the meantime the less dramatic business of basic medical training is put For specialized research, well-trained men, our on starvation rations. medical teaching institutions and their related hospitals must be in sound shape. But who wants to give funds for the dull business of heating and lighting a hospital, keeping laboratories clean, painting the walls, installing new equipment, hiring assistants, providing adequate salaries for staff, and so on? While all these specialized funds skim off the cream of public philanthrophy and gather impressive sums to give away, basic medical education, on which every one of them leans, must skimp and scrape.” These documents are reproduced here as an indication that an enlightened layman (the Editor of The Sun) is perhaps more deeply appreciative of an urgent current problem than are many physicians themselves. The conquest of disease in general, and of most of the chronic diseases for which funds are separately sought, depends on knowledge not yet available. The acquisition of such knowledge depends on scientific research, basic and applied. The success of research in, for example, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and a host of other scourges of mankind, depends not on money alone (though this All the money in the world, helps), nor on buildings, nor even on equipment. the most beautiful of modern research buildings, the most elaborate and expensive apparatus, would be sterile and unproductive without brains to use them. It must be remembered that Einstein, who possessed one of the most brilliant scientific intellects of all time, required for space and equipment only a room, a desk, a blackboard, chalk, a pad of paper, and a pencil! The production of brains for medical research demands good medical schools and their associated laboratories and teaching hospitals for undergraduate and The subsequent nourishing of investigators demands opporgraduate training. tunities for tenure (as opposed to one-year appointments on annually recurring research grants) and higher financial compensation especially in their younger years, than is presently available. As the Editor of The Sun puts it, “The less dramatic business of basic medical training is put on starvation rations.” Most medical school and teaching hospitals are operating at a deficit. If these unpleasant facts are accepted as valid, then the solution of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation suggested by Mr. Parks-that of a United The Health Fund-needs to be carried one step further to a logical conclusion. bulk of the monies collected by such a Fund, if established, should not be cut into the pie segments of 30 cents to poliomyelitis, $1.80 to cerebral palsy, and Rather it should be devoted, by the Fund itself, to basic $49 to heart disease. medical training and to the support of scientific investigation, basic and applied, in any field of medicine. In that happy day, if it comes, the medical scientist might be permitted to pursue his own ideas freely and independently, rather
Volume 3 Number 2
EDITORIALS
229
than to be limited by subsidization-usually inadequate at that-to work often halfheartedly, and often only for the sake of a job, on a disease problem in which he may lack the spark of intense personal interest. Those who raise funds-or contribute to them-for research in particular diseases should remember that the startling accomplishments of the past fifteen years in infectious disease control are based largely on Fleming’s discovery of penicillin; that this observation was basic, not applied, and at the time apparently useless*; that it did not cost very much; and that Fleming was not sponsored by large grants from any National Foundation or Institute for the Control of Anything. The control of chronic diseases, if accomplished, will probably depend on similar basic discoveries by investigators with trained minds, properly supported in their work. Funds are desperately needed for men, not for diseases. Given the men, diseases will be taken care of in due course. J. E. MOORE, M.D. *Flexner .Abraham:
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, J. CHRON. Dra. 2:241. 1955.
EDITORIALS
227
“Each of these causes is worthy of public support and each campaign has been approved by the Mayor’s Co-ordinating Council For Fund Raising Campaigns. However, it is a safe assumption that four out of five of these campaigns will fail to raise the sums required to carry through next year the minimum programs they have established, and it is an equally safe assumption that all donors will complain about the number of appeals. “The Maryland Chapter of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation is most grateful for the support it has received during the last four years from the public and from the business and industry of Maryland. The chapter is convinced that by continuing to conduct separate fund campaigns the health organizations in Maryland are not only depriving themselves of adequate support, but are showing a lack of consideration to the public and the business establishments from which they seek funds. “It is the earnest hope of the Maryland Chapter of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation that before next fall the voluntary health organizations of Maryland will join together in a United Health Fund, and the chapter pledges to those who support its program this fall that the members of its board will continue their efforts of the last year to bring about a single health campaign that will result in more money for health control and research at less cost and, of equal importance, in less annoyance to those supporting these programs.” (Signed)
BURTON
M. PARKS,
Director, Maryland Chapter Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation
The Editor of The Sun replied to this letter in the adjoining Editorialcolumns, with the title and text which follows: OPEN SEXSON FOR MEDIGLAPPEALS
“A correspondent, Mr. Burton M. Parks, who is director of the Maryland Chapter of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation, raises a question which is as disturbing to the general public as it is to those who raise money for worthy causes. The Red Cross-Red Feather Joint Appeal drive has just been concluded. Immediately another drive begins, that of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation, and will conDuring that month there will also be drives for the tinue for a month. Muscular Dystrophy Fund, the Maryland Society for Mentally Retarded Children, the Maryland School for the Blind and the Maryland Others will come along when these have been Tuberculosis Association. concluded. “What bothers our correspondent is that this multiplicity of drives for medical ends tends to dull the responses of the giving public. When urgent pleas come thick and fast, they seem less urgent. Giving is done by caprice, and not necessarily to the most deserving cause. The success of a given drive depends more and more on the techniques of the publicity man and advertising agent. Cleverness begins to count more than worthiness. One obvious solution is to lump these medical drives together, as drives of another sort were originally lumped in the Community Fund. “There is another weakness in these medical drives which our It is that each of them tends to focus correspondent does not mention.
228
EDITORIALS
J. Chron. Dis. February, 1956
the philanthropic impulse on a single disease or group of diseases rather Implicit in each of them is than the whole field of medical research. the assumption that funds for its own projects are the crying need. “Funds for special projects are needed, beyond doubt. But ample funds for research in arthritis and rheumatism, in muscular dystrophy, problems of the mentally retarded and so forth don’t go very far if in the meantime the less dramatic business of basic medical training is put For specialized research, well-trained men, our on starvation rations. medical teaching institutions and their related hospitals must be in sound shape. But who wants to give funds for the dull business of heating and lighting a hospital, keeping laboratories clean, painting the walls, installing new equipment, hiring assistants, providing adequate salaries for staff, and so on? While all these specialized funds skim off the cream of public philanthrophy and gather impressive sums to give away, basic medical education, on which every one of them leans, must skimp and scrape.” These documents are reproduced here as an indication that an enlightened layman (the Editor of The Sun) is perhaps more deeply appreciative of an urgent current problem than are many physicians themselves. The conquest of disease in general, and of most of the chronic diseases for which funds are separately sought, depends on knowledge not yet available. The acquisition of such knowledge depends on scientific research, basic and applied. The success of research in, for example, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and a host of other scourges of mankind, depends not on money alone (though this All the money in the world, helps), nor on buildings, nor even on equipment. the most beautiful of modern research buildings, the most elaborate and expensive apparatus, would be sterile and unproductive without brains to use them. It must be remembered that Einstein, who possessed one of the most brilliant scientific intellects of all time, required for space and equipment only a room, a desk, a blackboard, chalk, a pad of paper, and a pencil! The production of brains for medical research demands good medical schools and their associated laboratories and teaching hospitals for undergraduate and The subsequent nourishing of investigators demands opporgraduate training. tunities for tenure (as opposed to one-year appointments on annually recurring research grants) and higher financial compensation especially in their younger years, than is presently available. As the Editor of The Sun puts it, “The less dramatic business of basic medical training is put on starvation rations.” Most medical school and teaching hospitals are operating at a deficit. If these unpleasant facts are accepted as valid, then the solution of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation suggested by Mr. Parks-that of a United The Health Fund-needs to be carried one step further to a logical conclusion. bulk of the monies collected by such a Fund, if established, should not be cut into the pie segments of 30 cents to poliomyelitis, $1.80 to cerebral palsy, and Rather it should be devoted, by the Fund itself, to basic $49 to heart disease. medical training and to the support of scientific investigation, basic and applied, in any field of medicine. In that happy day, if it comes, the medical scientist might be permitted to pursue his own ideas freely and independently, rather
Volume 3 Number 2
EDITORIALS
229
than to be limited by subsidization-usually inadequate at that-to work often halfheartedly, and often only for the sake of a job, on a disease problem in which he may lack the spark of intense personal interest. Those who raise funds-or contribute to them-for research in particular diseases should remember that the startling accomplishments of the past fifteen years in infectious disease control are based largely on Fleming’s discovery of penicillin; that this observation was basic, not applied, and at the time apparently useless*; that it did not cost very much; and that Fleming was not sponsored by large grants from any National Foundation or Institute for the Control of Anything. The control of chronic diseases, if accomplished, will probably depend on similar basic discoveries by investigators with trained minds, properly supported in their work. Funds are desperately needed for men, not for diseases. Given the men, diseases will be taken care of in due course. J. E. MOORE, M.D. *Flexner .Abraham:
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, J. CHRON. Dra. 2:241. 1955.