Does conventional early life academic excellence predict later life scientific discovery? An assessment of the lives of great medical innovators

BACKGROUND: Perhaps, as never before, we need innovators. With our growing population numbers, and with increasing pressures on our education systems, are we in danger of becoming more rigid and formulaic and increasingly inhibiting innovation? When young can we predict who will become the great innovators? For example, in medicine, who will change clinical practice? AIMS: We therefore determined to assess whether the current academic …