The centenary celebrations of the Johnson-Jeffries “fight of the century,” which took place on July 4th, 1910, overshadowed another event that is arguably more important and relevant to Americans living today—the publication of “the Flexner Report” on the state and reform of American medical education. As in 1910, the professionalism of medicine is again in question. Over the last two decades, changes to the rules and funding for medical research have pushed doctors (especially university scientists) and the drug industry together, with the hope that the relationship would lead to new and more beneficial products. Instead, the creativity of the drug industry has stagnated (though not in terms of making profits), and doctors’ credibility has been deeply damaged.
The centenary celebrations of the Johnson-Jeffries “fight of the century,” which took place on July 4th, 1910, overshadowed another event that is arguably more important and relevant to Americans living today—the publication of “the Flexner Report” on the state and reform of American medical education. As in 1910, the professionalism of medicine is again in question. Over the last two decades, changes to the rules and funding for medical research have pushed doctors (especially university scientists) and the drug industry together, with the hope that the relationship would lead to new and more beneficial products. Instead, the creativity of the drug industry has stagnated (though not in terms of making profits), and doctors’ credibility has been deeply damaged.
Lawrence Diller, "100 Years Later, the Flexner Report Is Still Relevant," Hastings Center Report 40, no. 5 (2010): inside back cover.