Campaign to revitalise academic medicine: Don't believe us

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7460.294

BMJ 2004;329:294 (31 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7460.294

Letter

Campaign to revitalise academic medicine

Don't believe us

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Rather than add my advice to the deluge that metthe magnificent, international group of young people who cametogether last month to propose improvements for the academicmedicine of tomorrow,¹ I pose a question to them: "Why, on earth,should you take any advice from any of us old farts who (throughinattention, greed, or simple incompetence) got academic medicineinto the simply awful mess in which you find it today?"

We have rejected the provision of continuous, comprehensivecare and middling incomes in favour of huge waiting lists, unethicalself referral for costly diagnostic tests, and industry-consultantshipsthat pervert our science as profoundly as they line our pockets.

We continue to apply curriculums that value memory above thought,promote study by fear rather than reason, and sentence postgraduatesto years of servitude in the educationally "lost generation."

We value the study of adenine, thymine, cytosine, and . . . [Full text of this article]

David L Sackett, director

Trout Research and Education Center at Irish Lake, RR 1, Markdale, ON, Canada N0C 1H0 sackett@bmts.com

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