American medical schools and teaching hospitals are not training enough physicians with the interest and ability to conduct research on medical treatments, according to a report issued by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The report, “Promoting Translational and Clinical Science: The Critical Role of Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals,” recommends, among other things, that medical schools and residency programs require students to learn the basics of translational and clinical science. That should help them in their medical practices, and perhaps interest them in become research physicians.

Growing concern about these issues led the National Institutes of Health last year to start a new grant program to further such clinical and translational research (The Chronicle, October 13, 2005).