Context Note:

Drug-resistant infections are a crucial issue in the modern medical field. These infections,
developed by the irresponsible prescription and use of antibiotics, have the potential to become a
worldwide, life-threatening epidemic if researchers are unable to find efficient and potent
treatments. Current efforts to develop these treatments are poorly coordinated and have little
concentration as there are almost too many potential methods of treatment being researched. This
lack of coordination and cooperation in research efforts has lead to repetition in projects and a
lack of directed effort. By coordinating research activities and compiling findings, the path to
discovering effective treatments for drug-resistant infections will be significantly shorter.
The following paper is a press release issued by the Centers of Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) directed to the general public that would read the “Science” or “Government”
sections of reputable papers, such as the NY Times, that would public press releases from
government agencies such as the CDC. This press release’s purpose is to provide a short
overview of the current state of drug-resistant infection research, what the CDC plans to do to
stimulate said research and how his will affect the state of public health in the United States.
 Collaboration in Drug-Resistant Infectious Disease Research: The New Normal in Treatment
Research

A formal and full hearted call for the support of collaboration in drug-resistant infection
treatment research and address on its affect on public health.

Press Release
Embargoed Until: Monday, April 9, 2018, 8:30 a.m. EDT
Contact: Media Relations
(404) 639-3286

Extensive investigation on the current status and progression of drug-resistant infection treatment
research indicates that the current efforts have stalled considerably. This lack of new treatment
options has lead to the development of drug-resistant infections that pose an increasingly
prevalent threat to public health. This report, from Public Heath Analysts at the Centers of
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is published today as an update to the public on the
current state of drug-resistant disease research, what is being done to stimulate treatment
discovery and how it will affect public health and safety.

From 1978 to 1993, there was an abundance of drug-resistant treatment options developed,
approximately four methods per year. However, in the past 25 years, this progress has
substantially decreased to one or less treatments annually. An initial response to diversify
research efforts in hopes of accelerating progress has failed considerably and has led to
redundancies and inefficiencies in research due to decreased collaboration and coordination. This
has lead to an increase in the abundance of drug-resistant strands of bacterial infection that have
now become exceedingly prevalent amongst the public, especially in public health locations such
as hospitals and clinics.

Through the analysis of research progression in other fields of medical research, the CDC
announces its official stance to be collaboration in and coordination of research for the drug-
resistant infection field. Through this the CDC hopes for increased efficiency and efficacy of
research efforts that will greatly benefit public health and safety. The reasons for this stance are
as follows:
  Collaborations between groups of researchers have shown to improve the quality and
robustness of experimental results, which will lead to greater confidence in developed
treatments.
 Discussion and disagreement about said experimental results are stimulated by increasing
the number of those personally invested in the data, potentially spurring the discovery of
new treatment options.
 Collaboration allows for the sharing of resources between research institutions, allowing
for the division of tasks to those who are most prepared to complete them.

Quality and Robustness of Experimental Results

While collaboration adds the involvement of many more entities, which can increase the need for
perfected communication, this increased oversight over the data being produced can have a
major impact on the quality and robustness of experimental results. Because of the number of
locations conducting research all related to one treatment progression, data needs to be
reproducible between research organization, at times thousands of miles apart, to pass
consistency requirements set forth by regulatory agencies. This causes the need for increased
oversight that differs significantly from current oversight. In the absence of collaboration, many
of those involved with the research, including those who coordinate and finance research, lack
the knowledge to provide competent oversight. Through collaboration, there is an increase in the
number of those involved with the research being conducted that have the ability to scientifically
police experimental results, creating a greater emphasis and expectation for reproducible data
and the strong commitment to good scientific practices. This need for reproducibility leads to
increased quality and robustness of research results. Through these robust data sets, scientists
developing these potential treatments will have greater confidence in their effectiveness against
drug-resistant infection. With this confidence will come drugs that will be able to revolutionize
the treatment options for drug-resistant infections, hopefully diminishing their identity as a
public threat.

Discussion and Disagreement

In medical research, often times there is the tendency for those conducting research to overlook
data or results that are no conducive to previous observations, due to many external pressures
requiring positive results on a regular basis. This can lead to the misrepresentation of the
progress being made by treatments as well as endanger the validity of the treatment being
research. By increasing the oversight of data collection and analysis through collaboration in this
research, one minimizes the likelihood of misrepresentation. Increased questioning of this
“outlier” data could lead to the discovery of important intricacies of the treatment as well as
prevent the speedy collection of poorly created data. This is a benefit to public health as it will
aid in the confidence of the effectiveness of these treatments as well as potentially allow for the
discovery of other treatments that could be of great benefit to the public. Through the discussion
created through collaboration, the likelihood of the development of new and revolutionary
treatment options is increased.

Sharing of Resources
Financial limitations of academia or publically funded research has been seen as a major obstacle
in allowing for the production of credible and ground breaking experimental results in a timely
manner. Through collaboration with private industry and private institutions, these poorly funded
research groups will be able to benefit from the financial capabilities of these affluent
organization without the need of spending resources dedicated to the securing of additional
funding. These affluent private organizations and companies will, in turn, be able to benefit from
the dedicated workforce and ingenuity of these publically funded institution; what these
academic institutions lack in financial resources they compensate for in the ability to think
outside of the initially set parameters of an investigation. The exchanging of resources allows for
the streamlining of research efforts as institutions will have all resources required to continue
research. This will lead to the distribution of tasks to those who have the resources to complete
them, while limiting any delays in research due to lack of resources.

Public health and safety is the primary priority of the CDC and it is our mission to encourage
research practices that will lead to advancement that is beneficial to the public. With this
investment in collaboration as a new mentality in this field of research, the CDC hopes for the
quick development of vast and potent antibiotics that can be used to greatly decrease the current
threat of drug-resistant infection to public health.

As stated by Professor Barry Bozeman et. al, a regents’ professor at Arizona State University,
“Compared to the single investigator research common decades ago, collaborative research in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has enhanced the ability of
researchers in most fields to contribute to knowledge, economic and social outcomes.” It is time
for those in the field of drug-resistant infectious disease research to join these ranks of
collaboration and coordination.

It is for these reason that the CDC formally and fully supports the conduct of collaboration and
coordination in drug-resistant infection treatment research. By doing this, the department
encourages all those whose interests lie in improving research progression in this field to provide
incentives for or place pressure on these institution which conduct research in this field. Through
this effort, the department hopes to observe drastic advancements in treatment options for drug-
resistant infection within the next decade positively affecting public health.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

CDC works 24/7 protecting America’s health, safety and security. Whether disease stats at home
or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, or from human activity or deliberate
attack, CDC response to America’s most pressing health threats. CDC is head quartered in
Atlanta and has experts located throughout the United States and the world.
 Reflective Statement

After being successful writing my Unit 3 paper, I approached this paper with confidence.
I initially though that my audience would be those who fund research efforts in the field of drug-
resistant infection treatment research as this seemed to be a natural progression from my Unit 3
paper. I planned on addressing how each of the advantages to collaborative research would
positively effect the financial security, profitability and commercialization efforts of these
treatments as these would be key factors that those who financially support these efforts would
care about.

After receiving my peer critiques, I realized that I had chosen another professional
audience instead of a public audience like the assignment called for. This is an important
distinction that I did not understand as I started by Unit 4 paper and something I had to do further
research on to fully understand the difference which included reading numerous Press Releases
addressing multiple different public audiences. This included press releases from the CDC as
well as press releases from other government organizations.

After do this additional research, I chose to focus on a more general audience of those
who would read the press release when published in reputable news sources such as the NY
Times. This, I realized now, is a much better public audience. Because the public does not fund
these research efforts, I had to switch my purpose from convincing the audience of the financial
implications of this mentality to research to the benefits it will have to public health as this is an
obvious concern of the general public.
Because the audience is a public audience that may not have prior information of the
issue, there is the requirement to do a short overview of the issue that wouldn’t necessarily be
needed for my initial audience. I also had to relate each of the benefits to collaborative research
to how they benefit public health.

I choose to keep a professional and formal tone and persona while writing my Unit 4
paper. I feel as thought this was important given the

Finally, I directly modeled the organization of my Unit 4 paper from previously CDC
press releases. The format of my Unit 4 paper is incredibly important to the purpose of the press
release as it gives the paper additional credibility as well as a familiar structure fro those reading
the press release.

With this considered, I have learned a lot about the difference between public and private
audiences as well as