Young Academic Physicians and Publication

To the Editor.—  Dr Strasburger's commentary¹ concerning medical writing was both informative and entertaining. Unfortunately, virtually all of his major points were woefully true. However, we differ in our opinion regarding the requirement that young academic physicians publish. He recommends that this practice be terminated. I believe his recommendation to be self-defeating and counter to one of the main purposes for the existence of colleges of medicine: the generating and rapid dissemination of new ideas.I do not envy younger physicians who are committing themselves to academic careers at this time. Vying for funds is much more competitive these days; from 1973 to 1983, applications to the National Institutes of Health have increased from 9,541 to 19,310.² In addition, primary care physicians are reluctant to raise their diagnosis-related group cost profiles by allowing their patients to enter clinical studies in which the cost of the study is passed