I've just finished reading the fall 2004 issue of Lens.
I suspect that most of us whose lives were spent in the practice of clinical medicine, even academic physicians, have come to realize the huge and widening gap between the basics that we learned in school and the science underlying the modern practice of medicine.
The papers in general medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine now routinely contain jargon and numerous acronyms for all sorts of molecules such as EGF, IL-6, TNF, CD-4, etc., that at least a general appreciation of developments in molecular biology, genomics and immunology are needed for the reader to understand them.
This issue on inflammation was, as they say, "right on." You have tied enough history and biography to the articles to make them interesting reading, and you have kept the concepts broad and simple so that those of us outside of the research areas can grasp them.
So much for praise of the content. The style, the photography, the art work – altogether – make Lens an extraordinary periodical. I have not seen its equal. The work of you and your co-workers significantly enhances the image of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Oscar C. Beasley, M.D.
Iowa City, Iowa
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Class of '52