This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
In mid-April of this year approximately 200 otolaryngologist–head and neck surgeons and basic scientists working in related disciplines met in Bethesda, Md, for the First National Conference on Research Goals and Methods in Otolaryngology. For three days, the participants assembled a unique mosaic of the past, present, and future of research in otorhinolaryngology from a variety of perspectives. The otorhinolaryngologic research effort was dissected, measured, and reconstructed in three crucial dimensions—local, interinstitutional, and national.
This conference was born out of the general perception that research is central to the vitality of the future of every discipline and the specific concern that an assortment of events in recent years have threatened the depth and breadth of our research activities. Lacking an effective solution, it is predictable that the ultimate losers in this situation will be our patients, whose medical problems will go unsolved for the lack of specific therapeutic answers to