Social genomics: genomic inventions in society. The nature of what's to come

This paper identifies several kinds of intellectual mistakes that proponents of genetic engineering make, in defending their views and characterizing the views of their opponents. Results from research in the social sciences and humanities illuminate the nature of these mistakes. The mistakes themselves play a role in allowing proponents to gather support from other protagonists in the social controversies involving science and technology. Understanding the controversies requires understanding that innovations are components of complex and ill-structured social problems; the "right answer" does not follow from scientific or technological breakthroughs. If the problems are identified correctly, issues of non-economic or non-market values and political and individual rights will need to be addressed.     

Industry,innovation and social values

Remaining important tasks in finding and developing new drugs and vaccines for HIV/AIDS, malaria, cancer and other diseases require continued industry research and development. Industry’s research and development pipeline has produced drugs that have saved AIDS victims previously facing certain death, but still no cure nor vaccine is yet available. Experience with the process of research and development indicates that it requires more than a decade of development to produce a new drug with costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Intellectual property protection is critically important in assuring that drug development continues. Partnerships between industry and the public sector have increased access to new therapies in developing countries and promise to enhance access to both patented and generic medicines in the future. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an international conference, “The Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights and Patents,” held in Warsaw, Poland on 23–24 April, 2004. This paper was prepared with the assistance of Maciej Gajewski, Policy Research Analyst, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IFPMA).     

Medicine and pharmacy — facts and myths about the development of an innovative pharmaceutical industry in Poland

Innovation is fundamental to the pharmaceutical industry and a key to improvements in healthcare. Its effectiveness depends on huge, constant investments in research. This innovative industry directly affects the course of studies in healthcare and medicine. Its efforts translate directly into the length and quality of our lives. For several years now, the progress underway in pharmaceutical industry has produced measurable benefits. Doctors have new pharmaceuticals at their disposal, including many types of antibiotics and anti-viral drugs, vaccines and a wide range of drugs which save lives or make them more comfortable. In the near future, ever more efficient cures for neoplastic, rheumatic, neurological, psychic, metabolic, circulatory or respiratory diseases can be expected. Innovation is necessary. The human population is ageing, and the task of an innovative pharmaceutical industry is to keep it in a good condition. The use of innovative drugs can translate directly into lowering the costs of illness. A continuous reduction in spending on healthcare has been observed. The costs of inventing an innovative drug are enormous though (US$ 800 million), and studies on a new drug last between 10 and 13 years. An essential element in recovering the incurred costs and ensuring funds needed for new research is protection by patent. Innovative pharmaceutical companies in Poland are committed to increasing the competitiveness and sustaining the development of not only the market, but also the entire pharmaceutical sector. It is a group of companies of crucial importance to the Polish healthcare system, as it influences improvement in the quality of medical services. Through their investments and spending on research and development, innovative companies accelerate economic growth. In Poland, the innovative pharmaceutical industry is represented by the Association of Pharmaceutical Companies Representatives in Poland (SPFFwP). An earlier version of this paper was presented at an international conference, “The Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights and Patents,” held in Warsaw, Poland on 23–24 April, 2004.     

A Lighthouse In The Desert? Evaluating The Effects Of Creativity Training On Employee Innovation

The contribution of three different creativity training programmes to employees' workplace idea generation and implementation was evaluated. The research was conducted within a government organization, where 191 employees (a mixture of participants and non‐participants in creativity training) were surveyed. Analyses showed that creativity training participants in one type of course only were more likely to generate ideas back at work and that this relationship was mediated by their creative ability and motivation to innovate. However, in terms of later implementation of those ideas, the environmental factors of management support and divisional climate were much more strongly related than the creativity training.     

组织信任氛围对任务绩效的作用途径

通过问卷调查与结构方程建模分析组织信任对于员工工作绩效的影响途径。203名被试和他们的上司参与了问卷调查。结果分析采用潜变量路径分析方法。我们构建多组模型与构思模型,通过两个阶段的检验,分析了组织信任的作用机制。结果表明：组织信任作用于心理安全感,而心理安全感通过两条独立途径影响工作绩效,分别是工作聚焦与工作改进。心理安全感能够促进员工针对工作的不断改进的行为和探索新工作方法的意愿,同时也有利于员工集中精力在工作上,从而提高个人工作业绩     

对改善农村医疗卫生人才队伍现状的思考

农村卫生技术人才匮乏给农村卫生事业发展带来了严峻的挑战,导致这一现状的缘由应从多层面进行分析。作为医学领域新思想、新知识、新技术的创造者和发源地以及医学人才培养摇篮的高等医学院校在改变这种格局中担负着重大的使命。探讨如何以客户意识作为教育及办学价值取向,从而为改善农村卫生队伍现状开拓了思路。     

Situating Standards in Practices: Multi Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment in India

Public health care needs to cope with a basic dilemma between providing standardized care within public programmes across entire and at times resource-constrained countries and adapting this care locally when responding to individual needs. This tension between standardization and local adaptation becomes particularly obvious for the prolonged and complicated treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Situated standardization, as introduced by Zuiderent-Jerak [2007a, 2007b] offers a way out of this dilemma. It helps to focus on how standards need to be situated in practice rather than viewing standardization and local adaptation as mutually exclusive practices. How do actors relate standardization and individual care in their practices of treating MDR-TB? Results from qualitative fieldwork at the first MDR-TB treatment sites of the Indian TB programme show that actors situate standards in a particular way. They assess the role of guidelines in a particular situation and on that basis recognize the core recommendations of guidelines or go beyond the guidelines. This allows actors to negotiate how standards should be situated and reconciles the dilemma between local adaptation and standardization. Having guidelines internalized, as is common for Indian TB control, bears both promises and pitfalls for engaging in standardization processes in a situated manner. The results contribute to science and technology study scholarship on guideline development. They highlight how actors coordinate the situating of standards and how this depends upon cultures of control. This illustrates the potential of qualitative studies on local adaptation for guideline developers by revealing existing practices of relating and negotiating local adaptation and standardization.     

毒品原植物药用研究的“负责任创新”基本策略

毒品原植物具有药品和毒品双重属性,这种特殊性使其在科研创新活动中面临诸多伦理困境。立足解决国内毒品原植物医药研究面临的困境,参照负责任创新四维理论模型提出五个负责任行为框架,即政府主导为主、大众监督为辅,提倡多主体共同责任、资质认证与审查制度、全过程嵌入式伦理反思、建立负责任创新价值观和预后问责制,在提升创新动力方面提出部分性开放科学推进成果共享、创新监管机制以降低科研机构的风险。以中医药科研实践为基础,引入科学技术哲学思辨,为中医药毒品原植物科研创新规避风险,为提升创新动力提供有益思路。

     

科学发明情境中问题提出的脑机制再探

以高生态学效度的科学发明问题情境作为实验材料,采用静息态功能磁共振成像技术,基于低频振幅(ALFF)和静息态功能连接(RSFC)的分析方法,探讨创造性科学问题提出的脑机制。结果发现,在控制了被试性别、年龄后,提出新颖有效性问题的比率越高,左内侧前额叶(Left media prefrontal cortex,L-mPFC)和右小脑前叶(Right cerebellum)的ALFF值越高。进一步功能连接分析发现,提出新颖有效性问题的比率与mPFC和楔叶(Cuneus)之间的功能连接强度呈显著正相关。结果强调mPFC对于科学发明情境中问题提出的重要作用,且更高比率的新颖有效性问题的提出是通过mPFC与其它脑区的协同联结来实现的。     

生物医学技术创新与产业化浅议——中南大学生殖与干细胞工程研究所技术创新实践的思考

回顾辅助生殖技术到干细胞工程的发展历程,探讨生物医学技术产业化过程中存在的问题及生物医学技术创新对学科建设和发展的影响。结论是生物医学科学创新原理必须转化为技术创新原理才能进而转化为生产力。而生物医学技术的不断创新要通过产业化来实现,产业化促进了学科发展规模和科学研究的持续深入。