Amount of annual research impressive

Dear Dr. Roach: Is medical research shared?

It seems that after all these years of battling various types of diseases and maladies, more progress should’ve been made than has been done.

I suspect that if medical research were fully shared and people pooled their knowledge, more progress could be made.

Is it just that various entities don’t want to share because each one wants to be the one to get the Nobel Prize for Medicine? — G.A.

You would be shocked at the amount of research knowledge that is published every year on all aspects of clinical medicine and basic science.

Back when I was in in medical school, it was estimated that if a clinician or scientist read eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, just on his or her own field of expertise, at the end of a year he or she would be eight years behind. I am sure it is much greater now.

The problem isn’t the lack of studies or lack of sharing. It is in sorting through the sheer amount published.

The quest for personal glory certainly is a part of what drives many scientists. However, I know a great many researchers, and most do so for the love of the science and out of a desire to further the field and to be part of the process that leads to better understanding.

Discoveries are (mostly) not made in isolation by a brilliant scientist — they are the result of patient, thorough, gradual work by many scientists across the globe.

Of course I wish progress came faster, but looking back on the medical knowledge when I started in the 1980s until now, the amount of progress has been staggering, and this has been reflected in progressively longer human lifespans, among other important measures.