While affirming that NIH's workforce of 325,000 people is well positioned for the future, Collins also admitted the US may be losing the war against obesity and "this may be the first generation that doesn't live as long as their parents." He also lamented the lack of people from "disadvantaged groups" currently participating in science.
Asked during the question and answer period how to retain biomedical researchers who leave science for "jobs in banking" -- laughter erupted -- Collins said "tenure track assistant professorships" were far from the only science careers available.
(A clip from Collins' appearance on the Colbert Report in which he explains the difference between "personalized" and "socialized" medicine also drew laughs.)
Asked how to improve biomedical education, Collins -- who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research this year -- said biology is now an interdisciplinary "digital science" and boundaries are passà ©.
Today's physicians need to "think" not "memorize and regurgitate" facts said Collins and they also need to master math and biostatistics. "Not being able to understand a Bayesian analysis will no longer be tolerated," he said.
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