Abstract
Most veterinary pathologists probably gave little thought to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the “health arm” of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), until they participated in the recent study on Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine carried out by the National Research Council and published by the National Academies Press. Although the National Academy of Sciences was chartered by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during the dark days of the Civil War, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) did not come into being until 1970, after the establishment of the National Research Council (1916) and the National Academy of Engineering (1964). Collectively, these nonprofit organizations are known as the National Academies. The members of the National Academies volunteer their time to advise the government and other entities and to create reports on important issues involving science and technology. The overarching goal is to create a basis for informed decision making by providing unbiased, scientific evidence on which policy makers (and others) can rely.
Studies undertaken by the IOM (like all in the NAS) are requested and funded by a variety of entities (Congress, government agencies, and other organizations), but the funding agency does not control how the study is carried out, who participates, or what is written. Sessions to gather information for reports are usually open to the public, but the committee’s deliberations are held in private. Every effort is made to avoid conflicts of interest or bias. The reports are made available through the National Academies Press (http://www.nap.edu/); they can be read online, printed out (free of charge), or purchased for a small fee. The goal is to make these authoritative reports widely available at minimal cost.
In addition to reports, the IOM also has other public forums as well as a variety of other venues for scientists to work together on issues confronting science and technology. Many of these have sessions and workshops that are open to the general public. For example, the 2012 annual meeting of the IOM was devoted to “Transforming Health Professions Education: Creating a 21st Century Workforce.” In 2013, the topic will be “The Science of Violence: Causation, Mitigation, and Prevention.”
The IOM consists of approximately 1900 members and foreign associates; 22 current IOM members hold veterinary degrees. Each IOM member participates through 1 of 12 disciplinary sections. These sections may include defined traditional medical specialties such as Psychiatry/Neurology, but there are also more diverse sections (eg, Biochemistry, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Medical Microbiology, and Immunology, Genetics). Thus, a veterinarian with interests in virology might choose to be a member of the section that includes Medical Microbiology, or he or she might prefer to be a member of the more diverse section, Dentistry, Nutrition, Nursing, Allied Health Professions, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine.
In the early years of the IOM, one of the health concerns was in food safety—especially pathogens that might be found in meat products. This may have prompted the IOM to recognize that it needed a more comprehensive representation of expertise in public health. The present health concerns regarding zoonotic diseases and global health mean that veterinarians in the IOM have an opportunity to help form public policies affecting both human and animal health.
Have veterinarians really contributed through these NAS venues? Veterinarians, including but not limited to those in the IOM, have always played an important role in various reports by the NAS. Perhaps the most longstanding of these is the development of, and improvements to, the Guide for the Care and Use of Animals. IOM veterinary members surely have had a significant, positive influence on policies concerning the quality, health, and welfare of laboratory animals. Some of the veterinarians involved with the Guide for the Care and Use of Animals might be members of the IOM; others might not. But IOM members who are not on the committee for the Guide might also serve as part of the extensive review process that is carried out for all IOM and NAS reports.
The key question in identifying IOM veterinary members (or other members) for committee service for the NAS will be the IOM member’s familiarity with the issues confronting the committee. By having an appropriately constituted committee and an appropriate panel of knowledgeable reviewers, the breadth and accuracy of the report will be ensured. This standard approach for NAS reports was used recently to deal with the controversy over managing wild horses and burros in the recent NAS report entitled, Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward. Veterinarians also participated in the recent NAS report on the use of chimpanzees in research, Chimpanzees in Research, Strategies for Their Ethical Care, Management and Use. Veterinarians who are skilled in research provide a unique and essential input to the NAS, because of the breadth of their knowledge of animal biology as well as an understanding of the relationships among humans, animals, and the environment. Veterinary pathologists may be especially well qualified for these roles.
IOM members, irrespective of their health discipline, share a common feature in that they are recognized for a high level of excellence and achievement in their chosen field. Typically, they have a depth of expertise in a specific area based on their research. The expertise of the current IOM’s veterinary members spans the gamut of safety assessment of pharmaceuticals, toxicology, microbial and parasitic diseases, foreign animal diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, inherited diseases, aging, laboratory animal diseases, and animal models of human diseases. In the early years of the IOM, many of the veterinarians in the IOM were located in medical schools or research institutions, but veterinary members of the IOM who are located in veterinary schools are now more evenly represented.
The IOM offers veterinarians, who have distinguished themselves by excellence in biomedical research, an opportunity to engage (or to reengage) with their peers in other health disciplines and to influence policies affecting human health, animal health, and welfare, as well as offer solutions to the challenges to our environment. The scientific discussions and personal interactions that take place among the participants in the NAS committees are extremely rewarding and make membership in the IOM an intellectually challenging and fulfilling experience. Additional information about the National Academy of Science can be found at http://www.nationalacademies.org/ and for the Institute of Medicine at http://www.iom.edu/.
Current members of the IOM who hold a veterinary degree are as follows: Gustavo D. Aguirre, VMD, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) Stephen W. Barthold, DVM, PhD (University of California, Davis) Ralph L. Brinster, VMD, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) Thomas B. Clarkson, DVM (Wake Forest University, School of Medicine) Patricia Conrad, DVM, PhD (University of California, Davis) Linda C. Cork, DVM, PhD (Emerita, Stanford University, School of Medicine) Lester Crawford, DVM, PhD (retired Food and Drug Administration) Peter Doherty, BVsC, PhD (University of Melbourne) Myron E. Essex, DVM, PhD (Harvard University School of Public Health) James G. Fox, DVM (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) William J. Hadlow, DVM (retired, Rocky Mountain Laboratory, NIH) Phyllis J. Kanki, DVM, PhD (Harvard University School of Public Health) Lonnie, J. King, DVM (The Ohio State University) Michael D. Lairmore, PhD, DVM (University of California, Davis) Robert R. Marshak, DVM (Dean Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania) Roger O. McClellan, DVM (Advisor, Toxicology and Risk Analysis) Terry F. McElwain, DVM, PhD (Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University) Frederick A. Murphy, DVM, PhD (The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Guy H. Palmer, DVM, PhD (Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health Washington State University) Jim E. Riviere, DVM, PhD (Kansas State University) Bernard A. Schwetz, DVM, PhD (retired, US Department of Health and Human Services) Li-Huei Tsai, PhD, DVM (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)