[Thoughts on the infrastructure of modern pathologic physiology]

Contemporary pathophysiology is essentially based upon three principal pillars of support: First the experimental method (formulated by Cl. Bernard); second experimental design (proposed by R. A. Fisher); and finally, present-day information resources, which are easily accessible in sophisticated databases, following the so-called information explosion. These three underlying principles, sensitively interrelated, should be employed appropriately when engaging in pathophysiological research or education. Three points of support invariably offer stable equilibrium, as does a tripod, and it would be an error a priori to attempt to support research work exclusively on high-tech methodology, or overreliance on statistical software, or pseudo-abundance of citations from journals enjoying a high impact factor, whilst lacking significant balancing support from either of the other two legs of the tripod--or indeed other sources altogether. If pathophysiology in Czechoslovakia is to achieve international esteem and acknowledgement, then our undergraduate and postgraduate biomedical courses must be soundly based on this tripartite infrastructure, as a starting point for our intellectual methodology in pathophysiology. (This speech was presented at June 20th, 1989 at the opening session of the Tenth Czechoslovak Congress of Pathophysiology held in Prague June 20th-23rd 1989. The text still valid, ten years after its oral presentation, is now published in this form at the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Congress.