Why Support Research?

Research and new technologies have made it possible for cardiothoracic surgeons to treat many of the defects and diseases that were not treatable forty years ago. For the past four decades, the financial resources for this research came primarily from the larger private, community, and federal agencies.

A great deal of research in cardiothoracic surgery was funded by revenues from clinical work. Fierce market pressures and health care reform measures now threaten these traditional sources of research funding. This poses a particular challenge to younger surgeon-scientists interested in cardiothoracic surgery. With current cutbacks in support of biomedical research, training opportunities heretofore available to surgeons have been curtailed or, as in some cases, even eliminated.

Why is research so important? Today's research is the practice of tomorrow. It's the starting point for all scientific advances. New forms of surgery and lifesaving drugs could not have been developed without thousands of hours and millions of dollars first spent in basic biomedical research.

Some 59,700,000 Americans have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease. Coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death among Americans. Total costs of cardiovascular disease in the United States are estimated at more than $362.6 billion annually. Cardiovascular diseases remain one of the most serious challenges facing modern medicine, and lung cancer is the most lethal of all the cancers.

The results of cardiothoracic research ultimately reduce the toll of cardiothoracic diseases and defects. Given the pervasiveness of cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer, today's research has the potential to improve millions of lives tomorrow.

Funding basic biomedical research to expand our understanding of thoracic surgery is vitally important. Still, it's only half the battle. The results of such research must be successfully transferred to patient care. Recent changes in the medical environment have meant that, increasingly, control over medical decisions have been rested away from doctors. There remains little doubt that a physician must understand health care policy to advocate on behalf of his patients and his profession.

There is a compelling need to continue to develop the skills of cardiothoracic surgeons as scientists and as health policy leaders. The Thoracic Surgery Foundation is an organization that is having a steering effect on cardiothoracic surgery through the sponsorship of cardiothoracic surgical research and the education of surgeons in health care policy