Microbiology: Combinatorial Genetics Enlisted in Search for New Antibiotic Drugs Medicine: Mice Yield Clue to Heart Valve Development Health Policy: Who Will Manage a Medicare Drug Benefit? International Medical Education: German Med School Learns Local Lessons on Revamping Its Curriculum Leadership: Chairs Retreat Tackles the Tough, the Tempting Study Links p73 to Hippocampal Growth, Pheromone Responses Young Med School Faculty Most Likely to Be Denied Access to Data Study Finds Gene Involved in Transporting Iron to the Blood Study Finds Vigorous Exercise May Be Best Faculty Council: Interest Conflicts Top Discussion Nominations Sought for Compassionate Caregiver Award In Memoriam: Eva Neer Honors and Advances Writing a Recipe for Science: Cook Time Variable Front Page

LEADERSHIP Chairs Retreat Tackles the Tough, the Tempting Shut in a conference room with a cold Cape Cod wind blowing outside, 38 department chairs and 18 deans and senior academics last month held a day and a half of open, often passionate discussions on some troubles facing HMS and some opportunities they said were so tempting they hoped the School would not pass them up. The retreat opened and closed with provocative presentations by outside speakers. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen led with a discussion on "Disruptive Technologies" and Kenneth Ludmerer, professor at Washington University, closed with a discussion of his book Time to Heal: American Medical Education from the Turn of the Century to the Era of Managed Care. However, as timely as the guest speakers were, it was the three breakout sessions sandwiched in the middle that drew the most animated discussion. Two groups were assigned to each of three topics: principles of academic recruitment, translational research—bench to bedside and back, and opportunities to market the intellectual capital of HMS. The two independent groups hashing over each topic generally reported similar conclusions. The academic recruitment groups were specifically asked to look at recruitments from one HMS affiliate to another. The groups agreed that these often contentious faculty moves are a symptom of our environment. They concluded that the principles for academic recruitment, published in 1998, while clear and fair, are sometimes ineffective. They suggested full and earlier disclosure of anticipated recruitments and agreed that early review by the Council of Deans would be helpful in managing conflicts. Seeing vast opportunities for translational research, the two groups discussing bench to bedside issues arrived at many similar suggestions for making HMS more adept in this field. The proposals focused on leadership, value systems, and creating incentives and opportunities. The groups suggested that HMS leadership should: celebrate the champions of translational research so it is respected; engage basic scientists in clinical research by giving them the opportunity to use the research to define relationships between clinical phenotypes and basic knowledge; modify graduate programs to enhance exposure to translational research; facilitate joint appointments, joint recruitments, and interinstitutional and interdepartmental initiatives; and use the proposed new research building to facilitate transla-tional research. Both groups looking at the intellectual capital of HMS homed in on the potential of the Internet. They saw an obvious opportunity to expand the School's continuing medical education activities, but even more opportunity to expand the academic mission by creating a public medical information site on the Web. They saw the latter as having double-barreled impact on the academic mission--spreading accurate information and generating income to support the School's core academic mission here. The groups said the School should maintain tight editorial control of any Internet site, but should probably proceed with a commercial partner to manage the project and provide up-front support. Their last suggestion: do it quickly. In closing, Ludmerer traced the changes in medical education leading to and following the Flexner Report, during the postwar science boom, and in the current managed care era. He detailed the negative impact on medical education of the lack of time physicians have to engage students with patients. He concluded that any policy shift to correct these problems will occur only after academic medicine takes action to repair the traditional contract it has with society. —Don Gibbons