In 1946, Dr. William Banbridge said the search to eradicate the scourge [of cancer] “has been left to incidental dabbling and uncoordinated research”.
The problem persists today, in that research is fragmented, and separated from medical practice and patient care. It is hard to find a cure for a chronic disease when one does not know the cause of the chronic disease. Searching for cures, without knowing the cause, leads to random and fragmented research; and development of long-term and expensive symptomatic treatments with the potential to help or harm the patient.
Searching for the cause of a chronic disease may reveal more than one chronic disease can arise from the same root cause, and that we already have treatments that could benefit patients. Searching for cures without knowing the cause leads to symptomatic treatment, and continues to increase the cost of medications and medicine as a whole.
About the Author
