The Power Of Dialogue: Medical Innovation And Health Policy
Abstract
The Power Of Dialogue: Medical Innovation And Health Policy Barbara J. Culliton, Contributing Editor, Health Affairs and Donald Kennedy, President Emeritus, Stanford University, Editor-in-Chief, Science The speed with which innovations in medical care are introduced into practice depends on many factors, including the investment in and success of biomedical research, the regulatory approval processes of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and third-party payers’ decisions to pay for new therapies. But little common dialogue links these activities in ways that could accelerate the movement of therapy from bench to bedside or overcome the challenges that face the U.S. system of delivering and financing care. An intellectual chasm exists between those who do innovative research and those who deliver it. Researchers and physician-scientists read different journals than their counterparts in health policy or economics; they attend different meetings; they speak different professional languages. For more than twenty-five years, Health Affairs has been one of the main journals through which the health policy community communicates. Now it is eager to add to that role, to foster a "conversation" in print and online to bring these separate communities together. Health Affairs’ founding editor, John Iglehart, describes it in shorthand as "NIH