Social memory is very short or inconstant. That is why some conflicts, certain demands and many good intentions quickly go into the background, displaced by headlines, fashions and trends. Something similar happens with scientific research in general. We demand more funds, more human and technical resources, and greater respect for local talent on significant dates, that is, the days of the fight against cancer, rare diseases, Alzheimer’s, mental health, diabetes, or AIDS, but in As soon as they pass, we forget the tight budgets, the insufficient scholarships, the demands of making this research compatible with the assistance or teaching work to reach the end of the month.
We leave the responsible entities alone to focus on other problems, and we only return to the charge in the thread of a campaign that makes a disease visible, calls for attention that go viral on television channels or social networks or if a famous person goes public such a claim.
Or when the pathology, the problem, the lack or the need touch us closely. At that moment, we rediscovered the precariousness that many of our researchers face, we denounce the slow progress in diagnosis and treatment, and we demand attention and investment. We also remember that some of the brightest and most suitable brains for this job have had to emigrate to universities, hospitals and laboratories in countries where they are more respected and better cared for. Perhaps this lack of constancy in social demands is another of the causes of giving researchers less value and resources than are convenient and necessary.
For all of this, or in spite of it, we must congratulate ourselves on the dedication, time and effort that professors, doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and other professionals from the different branches of health and healthcare dedicate daily to keeping alive lines of research that are essential for the evolution of science and the well-being of people, from in-depth knowledge of diseases and the individual’s reactions to them to the discovery and development of new drugs, through the improvement of diagnoses , the optimization of attention and care or the minimization of symptoms and their effects. And we must thank them for the effort and the will to not give up on the effort.
Among Palencia’s leading researchers is Dr. Ana Belén Caminero, coordinator of the Demyelinating Diseases Group of the Neurology Society. Her field of work is multiple sclerosis and in addition to her care work at the Ávila hospital, she dedicates all her afternoons and part of her nights to research into the development of diagnostic biomarkers. She is enthusiastic about her work and owner of a complete preparation, she is an example of what has been said. And she needs, like her colleagues, more attention and more resources.