A hospital should not be entitled to patent the research breakthroughs of its resident physicians  Hospitals, as sources of medical advancement, should encourage the free flow of ideas and the general dissemination of medical knowledge  Yet a hospital that retains the right to patent the breakthroughs of its resident physicians has a motive to suppress information about the discovery of a potentially valuable medicine until the patent for it has been secured
Clearly, suppressing information concerning such discoveries is incompatible with the hospital' s obligation to promote the general dissemination of medical knowledge
If the discoveries of a resident physician are not patented by that hospital, then they will be patented by the physician instead.