Clinical Science in the 21st Century

I am grateful for this opportunity to tell you about the recent "Indiana Conference on Clinical Science in the 21st Century." After presenting my own views, in the first part of this column, I present in the second half a compressed representation of the "Executive Summary" of the Conference. Background of the Indiana Conference The countdown has begun for the end of the 20th Century and start of the 21st. This once-in-a-lifetime calendar transition is a fascinating event; with its fresh set of zeros, it captivates us with its magical moment of ending-as-beginning, and makes secret numerologists of us all. The approaching tum-of-the-century is more than a superstitious curiosity, however; it coincides with unprecedented social, political, and economic changes that portend significant personal and professional transitions, too.