Growing Input-Outcome Disparity In Biomedical Research

Computers, a many orders of magnitude decline in DNA sequencing costs, big advances in knowledge of how genes, cells, and organisms function, and the growth in microfluidics technology have not increased the rate at which new therapies come to market. The general public funds the vast majority of biomedical research and is also the major intended beneficiary of biomedical breakthroughs. We show that increasing research investments, resulting in an increasing knowledge base, have not yielded comparative gains in certain health outcomes over the last five decades. We demonstrate that monitoring scientific inputs, outputs, and outcomes can be used to estimate the productivity of the biomedical research enterprise and may be useful in assessing future reforms and policy changes. A wide...

Source: FuturePundit - August 18, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs