Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA,
J Assist Reprod Genet. 2013 Oct;30(10):1249-53. doi: 10.1007/s10815-013-0082-2. Epub 2013 Aug 23.
In 2005, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) called upon the scientific community to identify the most intractable problems in science and medicine and describe how we would solve these problems using teams.
Our group was one of 8 research communities awarded an 'interdisciplinary research consortium (IRC) grant.' Using the infrastructure of this large, multi-institute grant and a team science approach, we set out to solve the problem of fertility loss in young female cancer patients-work that was not easily funded through other mechanisms.
The word 'oncofertility' was coined specifically for the IRC to reflect the intimate partnership between oncology care and fertility care for these patients-two disciplines that would no longer function at arms' length, but as an integrated unit. Catalyzed by the IRC funding mechanism, interdisciplinary teams worked together in unique ways to create a 'bench to bedside to baby' outcome.
The grant has now ended, and remarkably, so have the most intractable parts of the original problem. As we look back on what worked and look forward to tackling the next set of fertility-related questions, we are confident that this very special NIH funding mechanism made a meaningful difference in the lives of women and their future children. NIH and the public would be well-served by supporting clinical problem-based, multidisciplinary team science approaches to catalyze fundamental biomedical breakthroughs and create new intellectual environments in which changes in clinical practice and standard of care can be implemented.
2005 年，美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）呼吁科学界找出科学和医学中最棘手的问题，并描述如何利用团队来解决这些问题。
我们的团队是获得“跨学科研究联盟（IRC）”资助的 8 个研究社区之一。利用这个大型多机构资助的基础设施和团队科学方法，我们着手解决年轻女性癌症患者生育能力丧失的问题——这项工作通过其他机制很难获得资金。
“肿瘤生育力”一词是 IRC 专门创造的，反映了这些患者的肿瘤学护理和生育力护理之间的密切伙伴关系——这两个学科不再是分离的，而是作为一个整合的单位。在 IRC 资助机制的推动下，跨学科团队以独特的方式合作，创造了“从实验室到临床再到婴儿”的结果。
该资助现已结束，令人惊讶的是，最初问题中最棘手的部分也已解决。当我们回顾过去哪些有效，展望下一组与生育相关的问题时，我们有信心，这种非常特殊的 NIH 资助机制对妇女及其未来子女的生活产生了有意义的影响。NIH 和公众应该支持以临床问题为基础的多学科团队科学方法，以促进基础生物医学突破，并创造新的知识环境，从而能够实施临床实践和护理标准的改变。
