Editorial: The Silent Cry: How to Turn Translational Medicine Towards Patients and Unmet Medical Needs

Frontiers in Medicine

article

Manuela Battaglia¹  Salvatore Albani²  Berent Prakken³  Norman D. Rosenblum⁴ 

[1] Telethon Foundation;Duke-NUS Medical School;University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University;Department of Paediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children

关键词: translational research;    translational medicine (TM);    unmet medical needs;    patient engagement in healthcare;    interdisciplinary;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmed.2020.00069

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Translational Medicine encompasses the continuum of activities that extend from the conception of an idea all the way till the development of new therapies and diagnostics for the benefit of patients. The purpose of this Research Topic “The Silent Cry: How to Turn Translational Medicine Towards Patients and Unmet Medical Needs” is to describe a new collaborative model of performing and teaching translational medicine revolving around an understanding of patient and societal needs, rather than on an exceptional idea desperately looking for a market need. The translational medicine journey should ideally start with patients as engaged collaborators (Battaglia et al.), and continue to involve a myriad of stakeholders from basic scientists and physician scientists to intellectual property attorneys, regulatory professionals, and funders—including industry, as the innovation moves from “the bench to the bedside” (Tabori et al.). However, practically all translational medicine programmes to date have been driven by physician scientists and/or basic scientists with a personal passion, often working with minimal training and support, as their career-path doesn’t align with that prescribed for either profession (van Dijk et al.), i.e., treating patients or publishing high impact papers. The dearth of patient inputs and of appropriate team-based problem-solving leads to potential medical solutions falling into unsurmountable “valleys of death,” eventually resulting in wastage of talent, research, and funding.

【 授权许可】

CC BY