Breaking Down the Walls: Thoughts on the Scholarship of Integration

The scholarship of integration is concerned with making connections across scientific disciplines, placing the work of individual investigators and their specialty fields into a larger context, and educating nonspecialists. The authors focus their comments on the biomedical sciences, but observe that closer integration of the biomedical and behavioral sciences will be particularly crucial to advance understanding of the human brain. They observe that as biomedical sciences become more technologically sophisticated, progress is increasingly dependent on sciences such as physics, chemistry, engineering, and related fields. However, the scholarship of integration has been slower than other forms of scholarship to gain acceptance as an integral activity of the professoriate. The isolation of disciplines from one another, particularly at large universities, and the perception of interdisciplinary work as risky and professionally unrewarding are among the forces that may discourage integrative scholarship. In addition, a troubling disconnect exists between the scientific community and the larger public in the understanding of science. Leaders in academic medicine and science must develop strategies to move interdisciplinary work from the margins into the mainstream of academia. Solutions that have been proposed include creating new research entities and funding mechanisms dedicated to interdisciplinary work; reinvigorating the integrative role of the physician-scientist; and training specialists in translational research. The scientific community must also work to develop more effective means of communicating the importance of its work to the public.