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The physician-scientist, 75 years after Vannevar Bush–rethinking the ‘bench’ and ‘bedside’ dichotomy

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Vannevar Bush enshrined the ‘basic’ and ‘applied’ research dichotomy on which much of science policy is still built 75 years later. However, it is time to assess whether this vision for science best serves the purposes of medical research and physician-scientists in the 21st century.

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Acknowledgements

We thank V. Narayanamurti for insightful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Gopal P. Sarma

  2. Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Gopal P. Sarma

  3. Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Allan Levey

  4. Department of Cell Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Victor Faundez

Authors
  1. Gopal P. Sarma
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  2. Allan Levey
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  3. Victor Faundez
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Correspondence to Gopal P. Sarma.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Sarma, G.P., Levey, A. & Faundez, V. The physician-scientist, 75 years after Vannevar Bush–rethinking the ‘bench’ and ‘bedside’ dichotomy. Nat Med 26, 461–462 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0828-1

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