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While there is a proud tradition of research and publication in medicine, the concept of R&D in other industries has grown to the point where medicine has been left behind. The pharmaceutical and medical device companies have driven medical research in recent years. While this has lead to exciting proprietary medications and devices, basic clinical medical research has lagged.

As our thirst for medical research grows, searching the literature no longer means a trip to the library and hours of sifting through articles. Medical research is now available to us on any computer, or even hand held devices connected to the internet.

In the future, more research will be expected of our healthcare community. Already medical boards, such as the American Board of Family Medicine, are requiring performance improvement activities as a condition of recertification. To meet that requirement, the American Academy of Family Physicians has introduced a program called METRIC (Measuring, Evaluating and Translating Research Into Care).

At Lancaster General, under the leadership of Stephen Ratcliffe, M.D., MPH, a Family Practice Health Research Center was formed in the summer of 2004 to serve the growing needs and interest in research primarily within the Family Medicine Residency Program. Michael Horst, Ph.D., MS has served as our Director of Research since August 2004.

With the growing interest in research and its inclusion in the core mission of Lancaster General, our research program has expanded, and the Lancaster General Research Institute was established under the direction of Bruce H. Pokorney, M.D., our Chief Medical Officer. Within the last few months, the Louise von Hess Medical Research Institute was formed, due to a generous endowment to support research involving physicians, learning, and community benefit. The Louise von Hess Institute will oversee research activities of the Family Practice Health Research Center, Lancaster General Medical Group, Community Health & Wellness, and LGH Clinical Lines. The Lancaster General Research Institute will oversee research involving Nursing and the LG College.

Our Institutional Review Board (IRB), led by Jeffrey T. Cope, M.D., has more than 150 open protocols. Some of the Departments and Divisions involved include Oncology, Cardiology, Neurology, Urology, Gastroenterology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Anesthesiology, Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Radiation Oncology, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation . Examples of ongoing projects include a Multi-Site Low Birth Weight Continuous Quality Improvement Project, led by members of our Family Medicine faculty and funded by the National March of Dimes, and a study of the safety, efficacy, and convenience of pledget mydriasis for cataract surgery led by Catherine T. Rommel, M.D.

A number of our physicians have had articles published in national journals. Last year, Andrew S. Coco, M.D., MPH received national attention for a study he published in the Annals of Family Medicine entitled, “The Cost-Effectiveness of Expanded Testing for Primary HIV Infection.” Dr. Coco also published two other studies in 2005, one in the Annals of Family Medicine and the other in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Recently, while driving my fifth-grader to school I was thinking about the data analysis from our recent research project. My son broke the silence and described with pride to me how the day before he was teaching another student. I told him that in medicine we have the saying, “See one, Do one, Teach one.” Though at first this axiom can seem somewhat disconcerting, even to an 11-year-old the concept is sound that one can better understand a subject by teaching it. But through our research I had gained an even greater understanding of the electrophysiology of carpal tunnel syndrome than I had ever obtained through seeing, doing and lecturing. And so, it occurred to me that there is a next step:

See one, Do one, Teach one, Discover one.

Research serves to expand our knowledge in many ways allowing us to provide state of the art care to our patients. The Journal of Lancaster General Hospital will serve to showcase the research activities that are growing at LGH and to disseminate the wonderful work done by our medical staff. Our hope is that it will help to further medical knowledge in Lancaster and beyond.

David G. Polin, M.D.

DGPolin@LGHealth.org