The future of clinical investigators and of academic medicine in Canada.

Health is part of our own personal well-being, as well as that of the community and of our nation: clinician-investigators lead us forward in new medical developments, and may even be of assistance in developing innovative programs of cost control and outcome analysis. Canada now devotes close to 10% of its gross national product to health expenditures, second only to the United States, and yet there is still the widespread perception within this country that "there is not enough." The issues are how to do more with less, and how to recruit more clinician-investigators from the diminishing pool of potential recruitees. Academic medicine, with its research focus, is well-suited to bring together newer perspectives of education and health, and these clinician-investigators may improve major areas of our health care partnership.