Government policy on basic and applied research as seen through CT
British Development of Computed Tomography
Modern medical imaging has its roots in the private research of interested individuals curious about the properties of X-rays and how they could be used to create images of the inner workings of the human body. The development of the computed tomography (CT) in 1971 was aided by the private research labs of Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI) where the concept of measuring X-ray absorption rates in tandem with computer analysis to create images was founded. EMI was uncertain of the economic viability of a CT scan and so funding and cooperation with the British Department of Health and Social Security was established under the context of seeking to image the brain without costly surgery. In this case the private industry had developed the basic science behind the technology but was dependant on the government to help fund a working medical imaging device.
Focusing on capturing images of the brain helped convince the DHSS to fund EMIs development of computed tomography. Image Source NINDS.NIH.gov
American Development of Computer Tomography
Meanwhile in the United States it has been noted that there was little in the way of government interest in funding development of CT due to a lack of clinical plan applications. At the time the National Institute of Health (NIH) was more interested in funding basic or pure science research and hesitant to pursue the development of instruments or medical imaging devices. While there was little government interest in the United States for funding research and development of a CT scanner the end result was a combination of the work of publicly funded academic institutions and industry. As Bettyann Kevles (1997) notes “while the basic ideas were largely in the public domain by the time industry entered the picture, industry developed them by subsidizing advanced research and hiring away experts in exchange for having as show-window for what it expected would be its new product” (p. 185).
Structural Differences
The differences in the British and American funding can be attributed to their different organizational and funding systems. While the British had developed system of unitary administrative oversight the American system was divided more into areas of technique. As Stephen Toulmin (1964) notes “Britain may perhaps learn from American experience… one and the same technique may well contribute to the national life in half-a-dozen ways and so interest several government departments” (p. 358). This division would have led CT development in the United States to be under the interest of the NIH which was lacking interest in funding development, yet in Britain the unitary style of oversight was more politicized and saw the political and social welfare value of brain images obtained through CT. Had the US government been under a politicized unitary oversight system development of CT instruments might have found greater consideration but as Toulmin (1964) further notes that under unitary oversight systems science and technology funding can become “not a technical choice, but a political one” (p. 354) which could favor applied research, which requires as a base, yet at the same time may jeopardize basic or pure research.
Without the prior government investment in the research and development of physics and computers it is unlikely that industry would have had the components necessary to create and develop medical imaging instruments. Conversely without private industry the public may have been delayed access to advances in medical imaging. If either the private or public institutions had not contributed through basic or applied research the development of functional advance imaging technologies could have been delayed or required additional resources one side to make up or failures of the other.
Reference
Doby, T., & Alker, G. (1997). Origins and Developments of Medical Imaging. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University.
Kevles, B. H. (1997). Naked to the bone: Medical imaging in the twentieth century. Naked to the bone Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century. New Brunswick, NJ: Addison-Wesley.
Toulmin, Stephen (1964), “The complexity of scientific choice: A Stocktaking,” Minerva 2(3): 334-359