|
Dear Dr
Nabipour
Apologies
for the slight delay in
reply. I am embarrassed to
say that I do not have a
considered opinion to
offer you and certainly
not one that would sit
comfortably on a web-site
- in any case it seems to
me that since you are
based in a research centre,
it would be wiser to
collect, collate and
comment on - in short, to
synthesise - opinions
gathered using this
Delphic but apparently
somewhat scattered
approach, rather than to
use them as evidence of
the eminence (in my case,
very relative!) of those
replying to you question.
After all,
while your basic premise
("10/90") is
doubtless correct, it does
not follow that research
should necessarily be
funded pro rata to the
proportional global burden
of the disease in
question. As a cancer
epidemiologist I note the
relative disparity in WHO
funding for cancer
compared with HIV/AIDS,
for example. Cancer
affects and kills many
more people worldwide each
year than does AIDS, and
costs at least as much in
human and economic terms,
but international funding
for HIV research far
outstrips that for cancer
- why? The suddenness of
the AIDS epidemic since
1981 - while cancer has
always been with us and is
the familiar face of
chronic and often fatal
disease; the fear of its
spread from poorer to
richer countries (never
mind its increasing grip
on poorer countries), the
fact that it is an
infection with all that
that implies for the
potential of prevention
and treatment, even if not
necessarily cure (but at
least 16-20% of cancers
are of infectious origin),
and the fear of its
untreatability and
inevitable fatality - only
relatively recently
assuaged to some extent by
triple therapy, and of
course even then only for
the richest individuals -
all of these things seem
to me to have contributed
to its relative
"wealth" in
research terms. Add in
that the commercial
potential for AIDS
treatments and vaccines is
huge...
Further, it
is NOT obvious to me that
more research spending
necessarily gives better
return on prevention or
cure. And believe me
from personal expereince
here in the UK, even in
cancer research it can be
very difficult to
determine how much money
is actually spent on
research.
In short,
in the question you pose
there is an implicit
balance that would be
fiendishly difficult to
strike, even if a settled
consensus existed among
international
orgnatisations and
national research bodies
that such a consensus was
worth reaching.
It may also be worth
asking whether there is
any basis on which one
could possibly formulate a
"just"
distribution of research
funding on disease, before
applying what you know of
actual research funding on
those diseases to
determine the extent to
which the actual differs
from the ideal.
Sincerely
Michel Coleman
Michel P Coleman
Professor of Epidemiology
and Vital Statistics
Head of Cancer and Public
Health Unit
London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine,
Keppel Street, GB-London
WC1E 7HT
Tel +44 20 7927 2478; Fax
+44 20 7436 4230
Home page
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/cphu
Cancer Epidemiology Short
Course
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/cphu/shortcourse
and
Deputy Chief Medical
Statistician
Office for National
Statistics, 1 Drummond
Gate, GB-London SW1V 2QQ
Tel +44 20 7533 5256; Fax
+44 20 7533 5103;
michel.coleman@ons.gov.uk
>>> iraj nabipour
<nabipour@bpums.com>
04/01/03 00:56:19
>>>
Dear Dr. Coleman
Best wishes for 2003
Bushehr University of
Medical Sciences is a
young university in the
northern part of the
Persian Gulf in Iran.
The strategic planning of
the university has been
based on the integration
of education, research and
health services.
For research purposes, the
Persian Gulf Health
Research Center was
establised to help correct
the 10/90 gap in health
research, the fact that
only about 10% of funding
is targeted to the
diseases which account for
90% of the global disease
burden. We would be
pleased to have your
guidance, as an expert.
What is your opinion about
the future of health
research?
Undoubtly, your honourable
suggestion would be saved
in our web-site (
http://www.bpums.com)./
Best Regards
*************************
Iraj Nabipour, MD
Head of the Persian Gulf
Health Research Center
Bushehr University of
Medical Sciences and
Health Services
Bushehr, I.R. Iran
Tel: +98(771)2528587
Fax: +98(771)2528724
E.Mail: Nabipour@bpums.com
Web-site: WWW.bpums.com
--
Iraj Nabipour, MD
Assistant Professor of
Endocrinology
Head of the Persian Gulf
Health Research Center
Bushehr University of
Medical Sciences and
Health Services
Bushehr, I.R. Iran
Tel: +98(771)2528587
Fax: +98(771)2528724
E.Mail: Nabipour@bpums.com
Web-site: WWW.bpums.com
--
|
