Book excerpt: This book, written at the request of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to assist its AIDS program office in planning future directions, contains a series of recommendations for ensuring that AIDS research is a well-organized, well-planned, and comprehensive long-range program leading to the control and eventual eradication of the disease. The recommendations are intended to strengthen the planning, evaluation, and coordination of AIDS research activities; ensure their quality and cost-effectiveness; stimulate further development of promising research areas; increase the level of support for AIDS research so that researchers can carry out a comprehensive program; and provide the personnel and facilities at NIH needed to conduct and manage an effective, efficient AIDS research program. The book also identifies barriers in the delivery and financing of health care that are outside NIH's responsibility, but that adversely affect its AIDS clinical research efforts, and urges federal action to eliminate them.