Who cares about academic medicine?

The reaction to the campaign launched by the BMJ and its partners several months ago1,2 suggests that academic medicine needs resuscitation.3,4 But is it worth saving? The academic medicine campaign aims to develop a vision and set of recommendations for reforming academic medicine in the 21st century. Driven by an international working party, it gives high priority to incorporating the perspectives of the chief customers of academic medicine—patients, policy makers, and practitioners—through a series of stakeholder and regional consultations. The campaign also supplies an opportunity to question the global relevance, responsibilities, and scope of academic medicine: Who is it for? Why does it matter? How best to invest in its future? Articles in this theme issue (including two from the working party (pp 787, 789)) discuss these questions and identify the challenges facing the campaign.5,6