The immigration ban from seven Muslim-majority countries issued recently by the Trump administration is having the unintended effect of disrupting scientific collaboration, according to a statement issued by the Endocrine Society.
“President Donald Trump’s order instituting a temporary travel ban from certain countries will greatly impact knowledge sharing among doctors and researchers and ultimately adversely affect patient care, Henry M. Kronenberg, MD, Endocrine Society president, wrote in a press release. “Science, at its core, is a global endeavor.”
Gary Hammer, MD, PhD, Ann Arbor
Gary D. Hammer, MD, PhD, program chair of this year’s meeting, which is scheduled to take place April 1-4 in Orlando, said in an interview that he had received an email from a colleague in Iran, one of the seven targeted countries, immediately after imposition of the temporary travel ban. That endocrinologist, along with his fellow Iranian colleagues, had airline tickets and hotel rooms, and had invested in meeting fees and other upfront expenses, leaving them all with the question of what to do now. “He was prepared to come but now can’t due to the travel ban,” said Dr. Hammer, Millie Schembechler Professor of Adrenal Cancer at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. That email was the start of the Endocrine Society’s early action to address the ban, he noted. “I relayed the concern to Dr. Kronenberg and associated society leadership, who agreed that this is a pressing issue that must be addressed immediately,” Dr. Hammer said.
Another colleague, a woman from Sudan now living in the Netherlands on a visa, is, concerned too, that she would be turned away because her passport is issued by Sudan. She will not be attending the meeting, either. And another colleague not a citizen of one of the seven countries or even a western European descendant of relatives from there, called to say he would not be coming because of concern about the “increased challenge” of trying to enter the United States from Europe. “The ripple effect of this executive action has instilled fear across the globe, regardless of where they live,” Dr. Hammer said of clinical endocrinologists and endocrine scientists reluctant to come to the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting.
“The Endocrine Society is a global organization with 18,000 members in 122 countries, including some singled out by the travel ban,” the press release said. In fact, 40% of members of the Endocrine Society live outside the United States, a fact that underscores the collaborative nature of scientific research, clinical advances, and education in endocrinology.
In Dr. Hammer’s own area of expertise – endocrine cancers – advances in research and clinical management are made only when scientists come from around the world to pool their rare genetic resources and experience to make breakthroughs. “It often takes decades to develop international collaborations,” he said. Some endocrine cancers and other endocrine diseases are quite rare. Relying on cases just in the United States would make it less likely that there would be therapeutic advances, he said.
“Clinical care advances only through the application of science, and this effort is inherently global,” Dr. Hammer stressed.
cenews@frontlinemedcom.com