Connective Tissue Research and the Rheumatic Diseases

Journal/Book: Reprinted from ARTHRITIS AND RHEUMATISM Vol. 2 No. 6 December 1959 Printed in U.S.A.. 1959;

Abstract: Walter Bauer M.D. Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine Harvard Medical School Boston Mass.; Chief of the Medical Services Massachusetts General Hospital. From the Medical Clinic of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Department of Medicine Harvard Medical School Boston Mass. This is Publication #258 of the Robert W. Lovett Memorial for the Study of Crippling Diseases. The studies herein reported have been supported by grants from the Commonwealth Fund the United States Public Health Service and the Eli Lilly Company. This lecture was one of a series of 20 Lowell Lectures an "Disease and the Advancement of Basic Science delivered at the Massachusetts General Hospital during the months of October, November and December, 1958. This series of lectures was male possible by the Imagination of Dr. Henry K. Beecher, Chief of the Anesthesia Service, who conceived the idea, selected the speakers and gained the support o f the Lowell Institute. THE THEME of this lecture series, Contributions of Clinical Medicine to Fundamental Science has been abundantly documented by previous speakers. Although the exact sequence of events which began with a clinical observation and ended with an advance in basic science was not always apparent, it was clearly evident that the interplay between the clinic and the laboratory is freely reversible and productive of feedback mechanisms which are of great importance. Frequently, clinical problems provide the stimulus for extensive investigation in areas which might not otherwise receive much attention. In these instances, disease orientation" can enhance basic research in medical biology. In this setting the relationship between clinical medicine and basic science is a closer one. The vital link between clinician and scientist may be the constant interchange of ideas or a planned cooperative endeavor. In either instance the more intimate the association between the two the more often will this type of link be forged. The advantages of this association are many. Its success requires mutual respect understanding and belief in the intrinsic value of creating knowledge. ... ___MH

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