Need for Translational Medicine

Independently of the definition, what remains clear is the enormous need for translational medicine, mostly due to:

• The rapidly growing life expectancy in most world populations that has resulted in an increased prevalence of chronic disease, for which treatments are costly, prolonged, and, in many cases, largely ineffective.
• The continued rise in prevalence that has resulted in a projected growth of health care spending to unrealistic proportions of gross national product in most countries.

A final goal of translational medicine is to help patients with a more rapid development of new diagnostics, medicinal products and new medical knowledge for treating diseases, giving access to care for people at reasonable costs.