09/08/2021

What Medical Researcher Training Can Learn From the 'Yellow Berets'

These Vietnam-era physicians can help us today

In 2015, two researchers who study the biomedical workforce found a treasure trove in the National Archives: a stash of applications from a Vietnam War–era program for young doctors.

The program, established in 1953, brought recent medical school graduates to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for two or three years of intensive research training, where they would learn to solve problems that would improve patient care and public health. During the war, applications increased dramatically, as people sought to fulfill their military service obligations through the program. Many of them later referred to themselves as Yellow Berets, a self-deprecating nod to the idea that they had avoided becoming Green Berets.

The highly competitive selection process resulted in an extreme concentration of talent at the NIH. Nine of these researchers later won Nobel Prizes. The development of cholesterol-lowering statins and the human papillomavirus vaccine were just some of the fruits of the research careers launched through the program. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, is also a graduate.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.