The Research Crisis

Did you know that the Tulane School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics ranks in the top third in NIH Funding of all University Pediatric Departments in the U.S.!

Why do our faculty care so much about research? Because we are headed for a major crisis and we want to do everything we can to prepare for it. The crisis is the declining number of physicians that do research as part of their careers. Because the numbers have been low for so long, there is a growing shortage of mentors available to teach new physicians the skills to become successful scientists, even if an increase in interest could be stimulated. The crisis, which affects all areas of medicine, is particularly scary for the field of pediatrics because according to the FOPE2 report, “nearly all of the scientific advancements that are made in the field of pediatrics are made by pediatricians”. The FOPE2 report also declares that “the number of pediatrician-scientists is critically low and remedies to increase their number must be implemented as rapidly as possible”. The Tulane/Ochsner training program has an impressive number of well-funded physician-scientists due to its traditional academic atmosphere. With these assets available, our faculty have heard this call to action and want to teach anyone with an interest to become a physician-scientist.

In addition to the usual bench-top and clinical research done at most major medical institutions, faculty from the Tulane/Ochsner Pediatrics Residency Program also actively participate in research consortiums. Many diseases of childhood are relatively rare, making it difficult to do controlled, well-powered studies. But without those studies, pediatricians are left in the vacuum of anecdotal medicine. Research consortiums are groups of physician scientists operating out of different institutions sharing protocols. This level of cooperation is rare among scientists, but the field of pediatrics owes some of its greatest successes to this effort. Participation in collaborative research groups is common at both Tulane and Ochsner, with our faculty contributing data to studies on cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, congenital HIV, pediatric oncology, and more.

To highlight the importance of this collaboration, consider pediatric cancers. At one time, childhood cancers were uniformly fatal. Thanks to large research groups to which Tulane and Ochsner oncologists belong, slow, steady progress has been made. Prior to the 1940's, pediatric cancers were uniformly fatal. Thanks to the benefits of collaborative research, almost 80% of children diagnosed with cancer will enter long-term remission. There is still a lot more to do, and with the contributing efforts of our onclogists we look forward to the challenges of providing transitional care to these patients.

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