tration of the program. The Division Research Committee, composed of the entire scientific staff of the Division, has as its chief function to assure the conduct of the off-site research contract program on a high scientific plane without regard to organization lines.

I. Program review and evaluation

The planning and administration of the Division's research program involves the following groups or individuals:

A. Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine

B. Executive Council

C. Division Research Committee

D. Branch Chief

E. Program Category Team

F. Project Representative

G. Scientific Advisory Committees, Reviewers and Advisors (Non-division personnel)

H. Program Coordination Branch

II. Brief definition of the groups listed in paragraph I above and their responsibilities

A. Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine

The ACBM advises the Commission and thereby the Director of the Division on policy matters and makes recommendations on program content but has no administrative function.

B. Executive Council

The Executive Council is chaired by the Director or his designate, and is composed of the Chiefs of the Program Branches including the Program Coordination Branch and the higher administrative officers of the Division and is a coordinating link between the line organization and the Research Committee.

1. The Executive Council has as a primary function the review and evaluation of current research programs with a view towards shifting emphasis on current programs and broad planning for future programs. To accomplish this its activities follow an annual cycle correlated with the budget cycle and these activities include the promotion of reviews of various research programs by the scientific staff.

2. The Council works with the Director on the apportioning of funds for research among the program categories. Additionally, the Council assigns priorities to individual research proposals when funds available are not adequate for support of all projects approved scientifically by the Research Committee.

C. Division Research Committee

This Committee is chaired by the Associate Director for Research.

The Research Committee is composed of the scientific staff of the branches, representatives of the Program Coordination Branch and all higher administrative officers of the Division. The Committee is an instrument of the Director, and as such, assists him in discharging those responsibilities he delegates to it. The ultimate responsibility for action rests with the Director.

The primary purpose of the Research Committee is to assure conduct of the off-site research program on a high scientific plane and in such fashion as to complement maximally the on-site research program in order to form an integrated whole. It is therefore necessary that the Research Committee be familiar with the total Division program in the different research areas. The Research Committee crosses organizational lines and is a forum before which the various research programs are reviewed from the viewpoint of the Division as a whole. Such reviews and the discussions of individual research proposals before the Committee are the chief means whereby the various branches are apprised of the activities of the other branches. In addition, these reviews and evaluations assist the Executive Council in the fulfillment of its responsibilities.

D. Scientific Coordination at the Branch and Inter-Branch Level

Since the line organization structure is responsible for policy determination. program planning, budgetary formulation and administration of the program, and since the Research Committee spreads across organizational lines, some overlap in responsibilities is inevitable. Furthermore, there are many instances of

overlapping responsibilities of the Branches especially when both the on-site and off-site programs are considered together. For coordination at inter-Branch level each program category is assigned to a specific Branch Chief. Recognizing the overlap in responsibility between specific Branches and the need to coordinate the respective Branch activities, a program category is assigned to two Branch Chiefs in a few special instances. The chain of administrative responsibility is thus through the Chief. This procedure established administrative coordination between line organization administrative responsibility and the scientific responsibility of the Research Committee.

E. Program Category Team

The Program Category Team consists of the Branch Chief or Branch Chiefs as the case may be and a minimum of three and a maximum of six scientific staff members preferably representing at least three different branches having research interest in a program category. Formation of new Program Category Teams will be initiated by the Branch Chiefs in conjunction with the Chairman of the Research Commitee. Each member of the Commitee will have the opportunity to indicate those Program Category Teams in which he wishes to participate. The primary responsibilities of the team are the scientific evaluation of specific research proposals and the periodic review before the Research Committee of the entire Divisional research program in its area of interest to facilitate the discharge of the responsibilities of the Research Committee and the Executive Council.

F. Project Representative

For each research proposal, one member of the appropriate category or subcategory team is designated by the appropriate Branch Chief or Chiefs as Project Reresentative. He is responsible for the prompt scientific appraisal of the proposal in accordance with procedures of the Committee and for implementation of the Committees' or Program Category Teams' recommendations.

G. Scientific Advisory Committees, Reviewers and Consultants (Non-division personnel)

For any program category or subcategory where the Program Category Team feels it desirable, a small 3 to 5 man Scientific Advisory Committee may be convened on an ad hoc basic. Each Project Representative is also encouraged to have a list of outside scientific reviewers to whom he can send specific proposals for scientific appraisal.

H. Program Coordination Branch

There is a review of all projects not only of scientific content but also of the budget. The Chief of the Program Coordination Branch in conjunction with the Project Representative is responsible for detailed review of the budget from the standpoint of appropriateness and conformance with AEC and Division policy. Question 4.-What means does your agency use to maintain adequate communication with scientists and engineers in the field of biomedical development and applications as well as with medical practitioners and hospitals? Communication among the scientists and engineers in the field of biomedical research, development, and applications has been outstandingly successful in Commission operations. This process has been greatly facilitated and perhaps uniquely facilitated by the close physical proximity of the many scientific and engineering disciplines existing at all the Atomic Energy Commission National Laboratories as well as at other AEC-supported major research laboratories. This same situation exists also, but perhaps to lesser degree, where AEC-supported biomedical research and development is carried out on university campuses. In addition, the Commission's Division of Biology and Medicine, as well as the Division of Isotopes Development, maintains excellent communication channels with scientists and engineers through publications in the scientific journals. This process is supplemented by representation and attendance at numerous national and international scientific meetings and conferences sponsored by the various biomedical societies and agencies supporting biomedical research. These various contacts provide for the dissemination of biomedical scientific information and developments to the medical practitioners and hospitals.

Insofar as the AEC's mission-oriented biomedical program is concerned, the intermingling and communication process of the various scientific disciplines seem to have worked out extremely well in the development of improved instrumentation for radiation detection, methods for radiation dosimetry, discovery of ways to achieve protection prophylactically against the effects of radiation, etc. For example, new methods for diagnosing cancer, leukemia, cataracts and abnormalities of the genetic materials of cells all have required engineering concepts in order to provide better instruments for diagnosing and evaluating the progress of these diseases. Similarly, modifications of cyclotrons, accelerators and reactors have provided sources of radiations which are being actively investigated for their beneficial uses in the treatment of cancer. The Commission, through its Division of Isotopes Development program, has made radioisotopes readily available for many years to all qualified physicians for diagnosis as well as research, and these have now become an integral component in the researches of all branches of the biologic and physical sciences. Today, radioisotopes are recognized as a standard tool for treatment and diagnosis in medicine and there continues a strong impetus within medicine to find new and improved

uses.

Question 5.—What procedures do you employ to translate results of biomedical research into actual treatment and care of patients?

The Division of Biology and Medicine provides patient care at four locations: The Medical Department of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, The Medical Division of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, The Argonne Cancer Research Hospital of the University of Chicago and The Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California. At these facilities, it is possible to follow the development of a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure through all levels of research and ultimately bring the procedure to the patient. The following examples are given to illustrate specific procedures for translating results of research into care and treatment of patients:

(1) Once a method under study is established, it is not pursued on a routine basis by the Atomic Energy Commission but is made fully available to the medical community. There is a very great demand on the part of science in general for any techniques and devices which may evolve from the basic nuclear sciences and news of these developments is published and disseminated widely and as promptly as possible.

(2) Professional level motion pictures are also made on recent developments and shown at meetings in hospitals, before medical societies and at regular annual meetings of large professional medical-health groups.

(3) Both AEC and Laboratory staff present at meetings of professional societies state-of-the-art reviews on subjects of interest to the particular audience. A very recent example of such a presentation is appended. ("Detectors in Biology and Medicine," C. L. Dunham, M.D., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Transactions in Nuclear Science, 1966).

(4) Another route for compilation of new information is the preparation of our annual report to the Congress, Fundamental Nuclear Energy Research. This is given an initial wide and free distribution to especially interested persons and placed on sale by the Superintendent of Documents. It is announced in the Superintendent of Documents Catalog and in Nuclear Science Abstracts and by the Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C. It is made available to all AEC Depository Libraries on university campuses and elsewhere in larger cities.

Some advances that found their way into these communication channels include the development of such devices and techniques as teletherapy units, the modern high energy electron microscope, activation analysis, the density gradient centrifuge, the image intensifier and the X-ray or gamma-ray scintillation camera. Scientists working on such developments nearly always report on their projects as soon as they are convinced of the merit or usefulness of the device or system. The important point is that the policy of the AEC Laboratories is one of open scientific interchange and discussion; thus, long before a system or device has been perfected by its laboratory of origin, others have picked up the basic ideas and are developing them according to their own viewpoints, knowledge and subjective application.

Question 6.—What further steps might be taken by Government agencies to bring about more biomedical development without diminishing basic research and without disorienting institutions involved in basic research? The preceding material has shown that it has been the experience within the Atomic Energy Commission operations, that a high degree of follow through exists in the utilization of the results of basic biomedical research in developmental applications. Additionally, the record also show a sizeable number of useful applications developed by others stemming from the results of basic research carried out in Commission-supported laboratories. Nothwithstanding, further actions could, and probably should, be taken by the responsible Government agencies to encourage more biomedical development. There is a strong conviction, however, that any additional movement in the direction of more biomedical development should not be at the expense of the support of basic research which is recognized as the Nation's underlying strength in all development. While we do not propose any radical departures from the present scheme of things, some applicable thoughts seem worthy of consideration, and they include:

1. It should be possible with the resources of this country to place greater emphasis on selective funding of promising practical or developmental applications but without any curtailment of the very important basic research program.

2. It should be possible to provide equipment to scientists and technicians already trained in its use to encourage further development and applications. This would seem to be an appropriate part of our Nation's goal of making available to everyone the very best of medical care. We note that in many instances physicians, technicians and others trained in our laboratories in the use of sophisticated techniques and equipment lose this benefit on return to their home institution or hospital where such equipment is not available.

3. One area which could be expanded profitably is in an increased concentration of applied effort to improve and to reduce costs of existing developments which have already graduated from the basic research stage. At the same time, it is recognized that additional basic research may serve to contribute in the same way. Examples of these are: (a) medical scanning devices; (b) improvement in radiopharmaceutical development; (c) more research on instrumentation; (d) further development of short-lived radioisotopes; and (e) further refinement of blood cell separators.

Many of these advances conceivably could come about by inducing industry to focus more attention upon developmental activities. Another approach would be to stimulate the interest of the applied scientists and engineers in universities, foundations and other laboratories to engage in a form of "biomedical engineering" such as exists, for example, in several of the AEC National Laboratories; 4. In the same context as above, it has been suggested that the Nation's medical schools consider a curriculum involving a "biomedical engineering" approach. Presumably, some funding by the Government might be necessary to inaugurate such a change.

5. It is probable that a substantial increase in developmental efforts could be achieved only by an increase in application-oriented scientific and technical manpower. One way to alleviate this manpower shortage might be through an educational program, Federally sponsored, commencing at the high school level.

In general, a healthy natural balance seems to exist between basic and developmental research, recognized at the same time that the developmental side could be accelerated and improved through more direct attention. A classic example of this is the development of the nuclear theory to the atomic weapon on a greatly accelerated basis. The most serious drawback to expanding any effort in this direction lies in the shortage of funds. The discussion has shown that developmental applications can be greatly enhanced and speeded by an increase in support independent of and in addition to that for basic research.