Catch them young

Medical research by and large falls into three categories. Educational, dealing with teaching and training of medical students with the aim of making them better doctors and thereby improve their services to the community. Clinical/epidemiological type, encompassing research in a variety of areas with emphasis on data collection and analysis, which is helpful in planning strategies in tackling and preventing illness in the community. It is encouraging to note that many medical colleges have taken to these two areas of research as can be gauged from the papers published or presented at conferences. The third type is laboratory-oriented experimental research which seems to be fast disappearing from the medical colleges! No doubt Balaram super(1) laments that the situation in Indian biomedical research is grim. Is there anything we can do to get the young medical students interested in experimentation in biomedicine? I suggest the following measures.