While the growing trend with medical schools and hospitals around the country are to develop policies that “minimize the potential influence of the drug industry on medicine and medical education,” Harvard Medical School is taking a stance that developing therapies is a more important mission.
Harvard “appointed a new research chief who spent the last 10 years at a pharmaceutical company.” Although several of the hospitals associated with Harvard recently came out with new policies regarding interactions with industry, this new appointment is an important breakthrough in emphasizing the critical role academic-industry collaboration can play in research and development. In fact, Harvard’s Medical School Dean Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier noted that “skills from both academia and industry are needed.”
The new research chief, Dr. William W. Chin, a molecular endocrinologist, who graduated from Harvard Medical School and trained at Beth Israel Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, will become executive dean for research. The newly created position “will have oversight of biomedical research at the school and work with Harvard-affiliated hospitals as well as Harvard University on strategic scientific planning.”
Dr. Chin will begin his new role at Harvard on May 1, 2010. Before joining Harvard, Dr. Chin worked for “Eli Lilly and Co., where he is senior vice president for discovery research and clinical investigation. He joined Lilly in 1999 after 25 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.”
In applauding Dr. Chin’s work history, Dean Flier noted that “There are very few people capable of rising to such a challenge.” But not everybody is as happy about the appointment.
The Boston Globe also quoted Dr. Arnold S. Relman, professor emeritus of medicine and of social medicine at Harvard and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, called the appointment “puzzling.” He associated the appointment with a sign that “Harvard Medical School intends to even further strengthen its research ties to the pharmaceutical industry.” Such an assertion is misguided because Dr. Chin is a highly qualified and experienced researcher, and his experience with industry has only distinguished his knowledge.
Dr. Relman is worried that by this appointment, “people will worry that the separate roles for academic medicine and drug companies are becoming more confused, leading to more conflicts of interest.” This worry is also misguided because Harvard “is developing a new policy to guide interactions between researchers and the drug industry,” and has already installed new policies to monitor conflicts of interest.
Dr. Relman’s comments expose how rabidly anti industry and out of touch with research and medicine he has become. This is by no means meant to take away from Dr. Relman’s many accomplishments, but sometimes as we get father from the day to day realities of medicine we drift into tangents.
Can one imagine an article critical of the hiring of the Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Ray Ozzie to direct research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that would be critical of him because they “worked in industry”?. It would be a considered a ridiculous stance for a semi retired professor at the university to take. MIT would by shouting from the rooftops and ringing the bell for such a hire.
As was the case with President Obama—who when first elected said he would hire no lobbyists, and then issued waivers for various administration officials with ties to industry—Harvard realized that work with industry is crucial for enhancing research.
Also applauding the appointment of Dr. Chin was Dr. Lee Nadler, dean of clinical and translational research at the medical school, who first met Dr. Chin in 1969 when he was a first-year medical student. Dr. Nadler asserted that “except for Jeff Flier, Dr Chin is the most important recruit to Harvard Medical School” because he will bring skills from the two worlds of academic medicine and industry.”
Dr. Nadler further disputed Dr. Relman’s concerns because what Dr. Chin learned with industry, is “what it takes to move basic science to impact patients.” He further emphasized that the medical school “hired Dr. Chin to knock down those blocks” that impede bringing science to patients.” In describing Dr. Chin’s motivations for medicine, Dr. Nadler also noted that he “only cares about our patients and their families, not about the drug companies, it’s about people with illness.”
We applaud Harvard’s decision, and hope that many other medical schools can recognize the important experience gained from potential faculty and staff by working with industry.