BMJ  2006;332:491 (25 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7539.491

Letter

Best research

New strategy is warmly welcomed

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

EDITOR—Surely the goal of research in the NHS should be to achieve synergy, not opposition between research of the highest international quality and maintaining and improving public health and the care of present and future patients. This requires tackling the needs of several constituencies in a way that can benefit them all. It also requires allocation of resource in a way that will most effectively achieve this goal, given that resource is always finite.

Research policy also has to achieve collaboration with those players outside the NHS notably, but not exclusively, the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries, without whom successful use of research in many domains of practice cannot be achieved. Such relations should not be focused on "freebies" or drug lunches but on the recognition that only ethical and effective relations with commerce can provide in quantity for the NHS, and other healthcare systems worldwide, the further . . . [Full text of this article]

University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL rboyd@doctors.org.uk

Salford Primary Care Trust

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