The focus on the first 100 days of the Obama presidency rightly counted his many accomplishments. But perhaps even more profound is his vision: the promise of breakthroughs in science, technology and medicine.
The United States must focus on the promises on the horizon — discoveries that will find cures and save and improve lives far beyond our borders. Our role as the world's leader in medical innovation cannot be taken for granted. The truth is that we are losing our edge — even as other countries are joining the race.
Asian countries now outpace the U.S. in research and development spending. An increased demand for skilled science and engineering students in Europe, China and India has resulted in a reverse brain-drain, with too many of our skilled immigrant workers leaving the U.S. to work abroad.
Medical innovation and discovery have traditionally been a cornerstone of a flourishing America. Besides keeping us healthy, our healthcare industry provides good jobs: approximately 14 million jobs today and an expected 3 million new jobs between now and 2016 — more than any other industry.
Still, there remains an understanding gap in the vital role that medical innovation plays in our economy, as well as our global competitiveness.
President Obama gets it. In his first 100 days in office, the president has called for a reinvigorated effort to cure cancer, opened new doors for discovery through stem cell research, and committed to improving math and science education.
He has also convened an esteemed committee of the very top thinkers on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Perhaps most indicative of his strong commitment to restore U.S. leadership in the life sciences and technology, he has promised to devote more than 3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product —amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year — on research and development.
These historic investments will go a long way toward ensuring our economic recovery. Curing cancer — and fixing our economy — can be done. But it will require new and better medical treatments, as well as smarter policy.
To continue to achieve medical triumphs and safeguard the president's investments, we need policies that support research, discovery and development for new groundbreaking therapies. In President Obama's words, we must “once again put science at the top” in our budgets and in our legislation. That includes creating incentives to encourage collaborative research across the public and private sectors — something that is no longer a given in this economy.
National policies must be modernized to improve math and science education, make regulatory processes more efficient, create incentives for investment in medical discovery and make more-sensible immigration rules for talented students.
We have a president with the vision to see America's brightest future and the wisdom to lead us on the right path. It takes courage and discipline to invest intelligently when the economy is in recession. But failure would be far more expensive. We must invest in the technologies of science, research and education. President Obama has pointed to the horizon. It is now up to this Congress to follow his lead by enacting the smart policies that will be critical to the success of American medical innovation.
Gephardt, former House Democratic leader (Mo.), is president and CEO of Gephardt Government Affairs and president of the Coalition for American Medical Innovation.
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