Inc. Leaders in the health professions and health care industry today operate in a complicated and demanding environment. Our society as a whole must also deal with the need for greater access to health care and the pressures of an aging population. Leadership on the individual and industry level is critical, and in some cases, new types of leadership are necessary to meet these new demands.
Physicians have a critical role in the debate and in the solutions.
But I will say that much good has come from the work of physicians as responsible advocates and activists, on issues from quality and standards in health care to the future of academic medicine. At Merck, we're proud of a long history of positive and productive collaboration with physicians in improving pharmaceutical treatments for patients. Since leadership is defined in many ways, let me spend a few moments discussing what I mean by this concept, and how and why Merck encourages and develops leadership among our people. Our company's overarching goal is to bring the best of medicine to the widest possible number of people. We believe that the keys to success in this endeavor and in our industry are innovation, values, and ethics.