Understanding Biomedical Research

Most of us care deeply about animals.

We also care deeply about our health and that of our children, our parents, and our friends and neighbors.

We seek medical attention when we are ill. We see that our children are vaccinated against childhood diseases. We follow the news of medical breakthroughs: scientific findings about the causes and prevention of heart disease and cancer, drugs to treat serious diseases, surgical procedures to repair or replace vital organs or to correct birth defects, diagnostic tools and tests to pinpoint disease in the early and most treatable stages.

To understand the impact biomedical research has had on medicine, consider the following example:

Two U.S. scientists - Comroe and Dripps - have cited at least 21 major biomedical advances in the last 300 years without which coronary bypass surgery would not exist. This surgery now benefits one in four Canadians. Of these 21 advances, laboratory animals contributed to 18.

There are numerous other examples, equally important. This illustrates a vital fact: biomedical research is THE foundation for our current levels of health care and medicine. Without this foundation we would have difficulty alleviating a common cold - let alone performing such medical miracles as open heart surgery.

It isn't always easy to reconcile love for animals with the need for responsible use of some animals in the medical laboratory. But we need to distinguish the facts about research from the myths and misconceptions that exist. And we need to remember that the purpose of biomedical research always has been - and continues to be - the protection and welfare of ALL life, human and animal, from disease and disability.

The pursuit of science has its origins in the quest for new knowledge. Medical research is the area of science devoted to the study of the processes of life, the prevention and treatment of disease and the genetic and environmental factors related to disease and health.

To gain the knowledge needed to understand life processes, medical researchers conduct biological experiments to formulate hypotheses or predictions. They test the accuracy of their predictions by conducting further experiments, and make changes in their hypothesis based on the results of their experiments. This process of making predictions, testing them experimentally, and forming new predictions, continues -- and often new insights develop that need further probing.

Sharing of research findings is vital to the medical research process. Researchers share their results and conclusions with other scientists by interchange visits, at professional conferences and through scientific publications. Many years and many experiments later, other scientists may apply the information in other ways, or they may test it once again to confirm or change the hypothesis, or discard it in the light of new evidence.

Medical science is an evolutionary process. Each new discovery, each "breakthrough," is actually the result of countless hours, days and years of work. Every investigation involves many bits of information provided from many different research specialties. When these bits of information are combined, they often provide a solution to a health problem. Even when the problem is not completely solved, the partially combined pieces of the puzzle always provide a deeper understanding of the scientific process so the search for a solution can continue.