Research for Patients

Abstract

The insight into the far-reaching unsuccessfulness of our current biomedical research approach—at least as far as its relevance for you as a (potential) patient is concerned—must lead to a radical rethinking if we do not want to continue to waste a large part of the resources and lead bright minds on wrong tracks with false incentives (publications instead of medical progress). None of this is a criticism of my scientific colleagues, by the way. I am sure that the same brilliant minds who now invest all their energy and strategy into producing Nature, Cell, and Science publications, and are thus among the biomedical elite, will also be the ones who make great patient-relevant discoveries with different incentives in place. In terms of content, I am convinced that abolishing disciplines organized by organ will be essential for clinics, doctors, and biomedical scientists alike (e.g. neurology, neurologist, neuroscientist). This should be easier for scientists than for clinicians and specialists whose entire career strategy has been focused on one organ. But more on that later. First, how to reform biomedical research on which medical practice is based.