http://scienceprogress.org/2009/01/varmus-on-funding-for-disease-specific-research/ Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:59:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://scienceprogress.org/2009/01/varmus-on-funding-for-disease-specific-research/comment-page-1/#comment-4063 Malcolm Getz Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:18:38 +0000 http://www.scienceprogress.org/?p=1023#comment-4063 Dr Varmus focuses on science, not medicine. Our biggest opportunity to improve medical care is vigorous study of which of the available treatment strategies for each illness is most cost effective. Appendectomy is an effective treatment for appendicitis, not because basic science understands the biology of the appendix but because physicians tried it and found that it works. A recent study of treating certain kinds of knee pain with surgery showed that surgery had no effect in reducing pain. It would take billions of dollars and a good bit of luck for basic science to be able to explain why the surgery doesn't work. Knowing the basic science is a very expensive way to learn not to do pointless surgery. Fortunately, for much of medicine, we are better off investigating what works well relative to its cost and doing more of that and doing less of expensive things that don't work very well. Currently, Federal dollars spent on research in clinical medicine is about one percent of that spent on basic science. Dr Varmus speaks eloquently for science but his point of view is too narrow. Dr Varmus focuses on science, not medicine. Our biggest opportunity to improve medical care is vigorous study of which of the available treatment strategies for each illness is most cost effective. Appendectomy is an effective treatment for appendicitis, not because basic science understands the biology of the appendix but because physicians tried it and found that it works. A recent study of treating certain kinds of knee pain with surgery showed that surgery had no effect in reducing pain. It would take billions of dollars and a good bit of luck for basic science to be able to explain why the surgery doesn’t work. Knowing the basic science is a very expensive way to learn not to do pointless surgery. Fortunately, for much of medicine, we are better off investigating what works well relative to its cost and doing more of that and doing less of expensive things that don’t work very well. Currently, Federal dollars spent on research in clinical medicine is about one percent of that spent on basic science. Dr Varmus speaks eloquently for science but his point of view is too narrow.

]]> http://scienceprogress.org/2009/01/varmus-on-funding-for-disease-specific-research/comment-page-1/#comment-4028 Marilyn Walker Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:50:40 +0000 http://www.scienceprogress.org/?p=1023#comment-4028 This is on target with the reasoning behind Research!America's work - we advocate for all types of research to improve health rather than disease-specific. This is on target with the reasoning behind Research!America’s work – we advocate for all types of research to improve health rather than disease-specific.

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