Integration of research into endoscopic practice

I work in an institution in which research is valued, but you do not need to do it to maintain a successful practice. Nor do you need to publish to move up the administrative food chain. Why then do members of our Digestive Disease Institute (DDI) have 138 active research projects as of this writing and routinely publish 50 to 100 peer-reviewed articles yearly? Admittedly, these are not all endoscopy-driven research projects. They include studies from other components of the DDI (GI surgeons, oncologists, pathologists, and interventional radiologists as well as, in our shop, an endocrinologist who is the director of our Nutritional Center of Excellence). Why as a group do we feel that research is vital to our viability in this age of market consolidation, narrow network insurance plans, and myriad consumer choices that were unavailable to patients even a few years ago? And how can you condense this broader issue of research within a parent institution into research within an endoscopic practice? In general, I believe most physicians understand that research is undertaken for a myriad of reasons, some altruistic, some practical. Expansion of our knowledge base to include better ways to understand, prevent, diagnose, or treat illness is clinically practical, and expansion of our basic science has the potential to kick the struts out of what we thought we knew leading to disruptive innovation. There are additional benefits for incorporating research into our clinical practice.