The essential objective of the International School of Medical Sciences, to improve patient care, consists of several steps. The first part is to make clinicians aware of the vast resources currently available and to increase their understanding of these resources. The next part is to foster relationships between clinicians and basic scientists in order to generate greater recognition of each other’s problems. The third part encourages the use of measurement techniques in both clinical practice and research. The last step is to promote the discussion of problems in specific fields with the aim of identifying potential research areas.