Open Source Cancer Research

When it comes to treating, curing, and preventing cancer, modern medicine has largely failed...What would happen if cancer researchers were able to adopt an open and collaborative approach like the one that has--for the last two decades--revolutionized software development? What if cancer research could be open source?

When it comes to treating, curing, and preventing cancer, modern medicine has largely failed. You could argue that cancer is far too complicated to unravel in the few millenia we have been documenting it. Or that the billions we spend annually on research is far too little. Established incentives and policies that perpetuate research silos certainly seem to slow success.

Medical researchers have been trained in a professional culture where secrecy reigns, where they must protect their own interests. The dominant culture discourages sharing research findings and collaborating on projects. It has become more important to protect vested interests than to take advantage of the huge collaborative network that is available in academia.

This mode of thinking is a bitter pill to swallow for the quarter of our population that will die of cancer. According to the World Health Organization, one in every four deaths is attributable to cancer. What would happen if cancer researchers were able to adopt an open and collaborative approach like the one that has--for the last two decades--revolutionized software development? What if cancer research could be open source?...

...It is time to seriously consider a different model for scientific research–one that directly engages and benefits society, encourages open access and the free exchange of scientific information. The benefit to patients would be enormous.