Social and Policy Issues in Genetic Technology Transfer

The broad goal of the research proposal is to identify factors that either promote or inhibit the development, by scientists, of new genetic technologies relevant to health care and to consider the research policy implications of individual and organizational factors. The specific aim is to elicit the views of individual research scientists on appropriate transfer of genetic technologies into health care practice. Through interviews and focus groups with research scientists in the field of genetics, factors that influence the rate and direction of genetic innovation and technological development will be sought. Differences in the views of scientists toward diffusion of genetic technologies and their own role in the process will be analyzed with respect to: the sector in which they are employed (i.e., academia, industry, government); the applied versus basic nature of their own research; the period of time in which they underwent training; the departmental program in which they were trained; age sex; ethnicity; religiosity; and current institutional characteristics (i.e., prestige, tech transfer policies, commercial ties).