Data Coordination and Career Stimulation in Polar Biomedical Research.

• Other Authors: NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC POLAR RESEARCH BOARD
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1988
• Subjects: Medicine and Medical Research; Geography; *POLAR REGIONS; *DATA ACQUISITION; *BIOMEDICINE; *ANTARCTIC REGIONS; *ARCTIC REGIONS; UNITED STATES; EXPERIMENTAL DATA; STIMULATION(GENERAL); CAREERS; MEDICINE; MEDICAL RESEARCH; HIGH LATITUDES; ATTENTION; AWARENESS; EARTH SCIENCES; Antarctic; Arctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA317276; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA317276

The United States allocates relatively little support to biomedical research in the high latitudes. Yet, the increasing strategic and commercial importance of these areas will lead to ever-increasing activity in them. This trend, coupled with the possibility of contributing new knowledge to medical science, strongly suggests the need for greater emphasis on polar biomedical investigations. Rapid, effective development of polar biomedical research is limited critically by the lack of awareness of and access to polar biomedical research data and by lack of awareness of career opportunities and satisfaction that this field can provide. The Committee on Polar Biomedical Research considered these two problems (data coordination and career stimulation) to be interrelated. Improved data coordination could stimulate careers in this field, and a greater number of qualified people doing polar biomedical research could improve data collection and application. The committee further assumed (as is true elsewhere in medicine) that attention to service needs would lead to crucial research and attract more people to the field to conduct it. In biomedicine, in contrast to the earth sciences and engineering, consideration of service needs is closely linked to and generally precedes research effort and the stimulation of careers in research.