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How does a learned society – whose role is to drive a particular area of research, to foster communication between scientists and to disseminate the results of scientific research – have power? Can scientific knowledge contribute to supporting healthcare policy, and how? As an opposition, do politicians seek to manage science? Learned societies that bring together those with knowledge who can contribute to, and disseminate, innovations, but they are confronted by two new partners: the collective management of medicine and the intrusion of industrial commerce. If codes of good conduct are not written in stone, then distrust among the population will scrutinize the attitudes of all parties.