TRENDS
By JOHN P. HUBBARD, M.D., Contributing Editor
Statements appearing in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editor nor are they to be interpreted as the official opinion of the Academy.
FINANCIAL
SUPPORT
FOR
PEDIATRIC
RESEARCH*
M
ORE than a year ago a new move to provide urgently needed support for effectivepediatric research was inaugurated with the founding of the Playtex Park Research
Institute by the International Latex Corporation, of Dover, Delaware. The Institute was
founded by its sponsor as a nonprofit foundation devoted to supporting investigations in
the field of child health. In bringing the Institute into being it was agreed that its funds
were to be used, not for buildings and equipment, but for “the facilitation and
coordina-tion of scientific research concerning the nature, prevention, causes, treatment and cure of
diseases and disorders, and the factors responsible for normal growth and development
in the infant.” It was further stated at that time that the Institute’s support of research
would be based on the ability and promise of the investigator, rather than only on the
field of investigation.
The Academy’s Study of Child Health Services showed that in 61 out of 67 medical
schools reporting, the portion of the school budget allotted for pediatric departments
ranged from less than 2% to only 6%. In only six schools was an appropriation of 6%
or more allotted to the pediatric department, with a high of only 8% in the latter group.
Out of the 22 schools where this department received less than 2% of the total school
budget, eight received no outside support and two received less than $1,000 from outside
sources. These startling facts were among many which prompted the International Latex
Corporation to establish and finance the Playtex Park Research Institute.
That the need for support of pediatric research and education was not transitory but is
still with us and is increasing in urgency, is revealed in the 51st Annual Report on
Medi-cl Education in the United States and Canada by the Council on Medical Education and
Hospitals of the American Medical Association. This reportt shows that pediatric
de-partments lead the list of clinical departments in medical and basic science schools of the
United States in the number of unfilled full time positions for the period 1951-1952. The
number of such unfilled positions was greater than was reported the year before.
Platex Park Research Institute, which is endeavoring to fill some of the needs pointed
out in the foregoing, is operated by a board of 18 nationally recognized leaders in
pediat-rics who serve without remuneration and who are solely responsible for the
administra-* This article is approved by the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of Playtex Park Research Institute:
Sidney Farber, M.D., Chairman
W. 0. Heinze, Treasurer
Charles F. McKhann, M.D.
Joseph Stokes, Jr., M.D.
Lawrence C. Salter, Secretary
TRENDS 739
tion and allocation of funds for the Institute. The Institute’s Board of Governors is
com-posed of the following:
Katherine Bain, M.D., Associate Chief for Program Development, Children’s Bureau,
Federal Security Agency
Leona Baumgartner, M.D., Assistant Commissioner in Charge of Maternal and Child
Health Services, Department of Health, City of New York
Nicholson
J.
Eastman, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins University Schoolof Medicine
Sidney Farber, M.D., Professor of Pathology at Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical
School
John P. Hubbard, M.D., Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine,
Univer-sity of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Charles A. Janeway, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, Harvard
Medical School
Eva Landsberg, M.D., former Chief, Division for Physically Handicapped Children,
Dc-partment of Health, City of New York
Milton I. Levine, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Cornell University Medical
College
Samuel Z. Levine, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Cornell University Medical College
Charles F. McKhann, Jr., M.D., formerly Professor of Pediatrics, Western Reserve
Uni-versity School of Medicine
Henry G. Poncher, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, University of Illinois College of
Medicine
Bret Ratner, M.D., Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, New York Medical College
Milton
J,
E. Senn, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Yale University Schoolof Medicine
F. Scott Smyth, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, University of California School of
Mcdi-cine
J
oseph Stokes, Jr., M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School ofMedicine
A. Ashley Weech, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of
Medicine
Myron E. Wegman, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Louisiana State University School of
Medicine
James L. Wilson, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical School
The first grants by the Institute were made by the Board in 1950. There were 1 2
in-dividual grants ranging from $5,000 to $24,000 each. All but one of the grants were for
three years. In 1951 the Board made commitments for 15 additional grants ranging from
$5,000 to $18,000 each, the majority of which similarly are for three years’ duration. The
grants are for the support of investigators in the field of pediatrics, many of whom,
with-out the additional support provided by the Institute, would be lost to pediatric research
because of the budget limitations of the institutions with which they are affiliated.
Among grants which have been made by the Institute are the following:
Chemotherapy of mental retardation, Cleveland (Ohio) Heart Society
Hormone factors in water and electrolyte metabolism in premature infants, Columbia
740 JOHN P. HUBBARD
The relationship of adrenal hormones to aromatic amino acid metabolism in premature
babies, Cornell University Medical College, New York
The anterior pituitary growth factor, Cornell University Medical College
A study of uterine contraction throughout pregnancy with particular reference to
uterine motility in pregnancies which come to term and those which end prematurely,
University of Colorado, Denver
Studies on the passage of proteins through living membranes, New York Medical
Col-lege
Adrenal hormones and infection, Louisiana State University, New Orleans
Hormonal control of water and electrolyte balance in premature infants and
compara-tive studies in older infants and children, Columbia University College of Physicians
and Surgeons
The role of emotional factors in the causation, precipitation and perpetration of disease,
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
Amino acid metabolism with particular reference to the influence of adrenal and
adreno-trophic hormones, New York University College of Medicine
Physiological basis of diarrhea in infancy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Kidney function in young infants, Cornell University Medical College
Physiology of endocrine abnormalities, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
The identification of factors concerned with the growth of bone, Children’s Hospital,
Boston
A new approach to the problem of increasing the blood supply to the kidneys and to
the liver by means of arterial shunts and/or grafts, Montefiore Hospital, New York
A study of the abnormal metabolic processes concerned in the development of the
leukemic state in infants and children, University of Illinois College of Medicine,
Chicago
Most of these are studies of fundamental value in attacking disease and death in the
vulnerable years of infancy-an age group in which mortality rates are higher than any
period until the age of advanced years.
It will be noted that the grants made by the Board not only cover many fields of
in-vestigation in pediatrics but are also widely distributed geographically. It is the feeling of
the Board that one of its objectives should be the support of men of promise throughout
the country rather than concentrating on a few medical research centers.
The Board believes that the soundness of its selection of grants is evidenced by the
number of papers which are beginning to appear in medical literature and on the
pro-grams of various scientific medical bodies, and which are giving credit to Playtex Park
Research Institute for making those studies possible. Several of the grants already have
made significant contributions to our knowledge of pediatrics.
In a little more than a year the founder and sponsor of the Institute, the International
Latex Corporation, has made commitments to it of more than one-half million dollars.
It is felt that the sponsor is to be congratulated on its acceptance and generous support
of a civic responsibility as it saw it.
The success of the Institute to date does well to serve as an example of effective
team-work of industry and medicine and it is hoped that this will inspire other companies to
