As the new millennium begins, we find ourselves on the edge of numerous advances in cardiology that promise to make practice in the next 40 years as exciting as it has been for the last 40. Amidst these rapid advances, alarms have been sounding over clinical research because of the lack of newly trained physicians interested in research careers. Without clinicians devoted to clinical investigation, many of the discoveries in the basic sciences and technologic advances may not reach the bedside if there are no clinicians willing to devote all or part of their careers to clinical investigation.
Clinical research has many forms.
Participation in a trial of a new drug or device is considered by some to be clinical research. Others would classify clinical research as investigator-initiated studies in humans to elucidate new concepts of pathobiology or to seek genetic markers of disease. Epidemiology is also an important component of clinical research that includes clinical outcomes research. Investigating new methods of teaching clinical medicine could also be considered clinical research. I submit that all of these are legitimate areas of clinical research, and that all contribute to the advances we see every day in medicine.