The Association of American Medical Colleges supports the missions of academic medicine. We work closely with the federal agencies to ensure that our policies promote research and science. The tenor of that work has changed in the past few months, but we are advocating every day for the value of the research and science conducted at our member institutions that have impacted every American family. 

If you or someone in your family has received a vaccine, if you have cancer, if you have asthma, if you have diabetes or if you have heart disease of any kind, you have benefited from advances in treatment that came about through research. The reason the U.S. has been the global leader in research is because we are the global leader in federal funding for research. We need to continue to invest in research if we are going to continue to improve the health of the American people. 

At this moment of uncertainty that we are facing, we  need to understand why people would question the premise of research. If you’ve obtained research funding, especially federal funding, you know you must go through a rigorous review process. I have great confidence in what we do, and that we are doing it ethically and scientifically rigorously. But somehow that message is not being translated to the public. We need to communicate the benefits of academic medicine more effectively.  

My advice to medical students is that medicine is a glorious career, and that you can’t always anticipate what opportunities you will have. You need to be open to opportunity as it comes. We have opportunities for transformation — personal transformation in ourselves and positive transformation in the health of our patients. 

Academic medicine holds the promise for that transformation. Yes, we face important problems, but partnership between great people and great institutions is the path to their solutions.