What is the impact of poverty on health? Which drug would better treat a patient? What is the impact of contaminants on cancer? What is the best length of hospital stay for certain surgeries? What is the usefulness of some medical screening practices? Why are teenagers so attracted to smoking? What intervention strategies are best to address particular health issues?

All of these questions require the best information possible to help us address these very difficult health issues. The federal government recognizes that the national health research infrastructure needs to be reorganized in order to be able to answer these questions. The infrastructure should support collaborative research ventures involving researchers working in different fields and in different parts of the country.