"The 19th-century scientist and pathologist Rudolph Virchow gave voice to many of our present-day concerns about disparities and went a long way toward defining the task before us. A socially minded man, he believed that science should speak the language of the common people and that medicine should serve the public's health. He wrote, 'If medicine is to fulfill her greatest task, then she must enter the political and social life…'"
Do you agree and why? Is it permissible for scientists to become advocates in the areas of their research? What steps can one take to balance advocacy with the objectivity that is considered the ideal in scientific inquiry?
If we are to believe that disparities in health outcomes based on race, socioeconomic status, housing status, gender, immigration status, etc, exist and drive poor outcomes in health, then it would be a necessary step in logic that researchers would then need to enter the political arena as advocates and activists, with an eye to understanding the structures and societal allocation of resources that underpin these disparities.The research world of implementation sciences can offer a way to both combine implementing changes in structures of health care delivery and a rigorous way to evaluate how health outcomes change as a result. With IS, policy changes that affect large populations can be argued for and evaluated on a large scale.