Research and practice in adolescent medicine: “both-and” not “either-or” for clinicians

• Published in: Journal of adolescent health 2000-10, Vol.27 (4), p.225-226
• Main Author: Rogers, Audrey Smith
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Medicine; Humans; Organizational Objectives; Periodicals as Topic; Societies, Medical
• ISSN: 1054-139X; 1879-1972
• DOI: 10.1016/S1054-139X(00)00175-0

The Society for Adolescent Medicine, a multidisciplinary organization, is devoted to the development of comprehensive acute, chronic, and preventive health care delivery to youth and to the institution of imaginative scientific research regarding all aspects of adolescence (1). Thus reads the masthead of the Journal which has been the primary vehicle for disseminating the scientific research to which the Society has committed itself. On this twentieth anniversary of the Journal, it is fitting, as it is with any anniversary, to examine how close the fit is between our principled objectives and our more real products appearing on these pages. Twenty years seems too brief a time span (as any parent at a college graduation will tell you easily enough), but twenty years has been time enough for a fledgling professional society to launch and sustain a journal which has moved from its primary clinical roots to a broad interdisciplinary scope. The last decade has witnessed the publication of both Guidelines for the Participation of Adolescents in Research (2) as well as a Code of Research Ethics in the Journal (3). These policy documents of the Society and its other efforts (4) provide a basis from which to embark on the comprehensive scope of scientific research to which we have pledged ourselves. It is noteworthy that the Society devotes itself to the development of health care delivery and to the institution of research. This dual commitment underscores the conviction that our discipline remains a mosaic of art and science and that a health care professional involved with patients must possess the skills of both healer and scientist. The art of health care is represented by a tradition of empathetic caring historically rooted in priestly duties when healers were invited by people into the troubled times of their lives to aid, to comfort, and to witness. This was, and remains, a sacred duty and a profound honor. The Society understands its obligation to initiate its members into prudent, responsible, and compassionate practice that reveres and preserves this legacy through its active dedication to mentoring. The science of health care is pursued and learned through research, which is both a process and a product. But restricting the process to clinical research units or population-based interventions fails to grasp the dual obligation assumed by clinicians to practice both art and science. Indeed, any therapeutic intervention in any clinical encounter should be