topic Hightech Strategy

Roadmap for the Health Research Programme

• give reason to expect that the targeted use of additional resources will lead to recognizable progress,
• lead to improvements in diagnostics, therapy, prevention and rehabilitation in relevant areas of disease,
• can stimulate the development of new products and thus trigger economic opportunities.

Topic areas where targeted funding can help Germany to achieve an outstanding position internationally or expand its already very good position play an important role in this context.

The roadmap provided the first evaluation of future developments in health research based on the actual situation in Germany. Its distinctive feature is that it takes into account the specific characteristics of our population structure and the German health system. This report is therefore better suited as a guideline for health research than the report of the American National Institute of Health, which was previously often used for orientation purposes.

Since the Federal Government's Health Research Programme is aimed primarily towards clinical research, it was obvious that the experts focused on clinical topic areas and particularly on the major common diseases. The diseases under study account for the majority of illnesses and the major part of the material and social costs involved. Furthermore, experts are noting a clear cleft between basic and clinical research which means that far too few findings in the field of basic research are taking far too long to enter clinical research. Diseases could be better avoided, diagnosed and cured if basic research was tuned more precisely towards clinical questions. Using clinical research to ensure the translation of the results of basic research into applications is therefore one of the particular challenges facing an effective and efficient health research policy.

Examples of the results

Working groups were set up in the six selected fields of major diseases and medical specialists from universities, non-university research institutions and industry were questioned with regard to research priorities. The following research priorities were named as examples in these six areas:

• Musculoskeletal diseases.

  Diseases in this field account for 16 percent of health expenditure and are thus the biggest cost factor in the German health system. Priorities mentioned in this field were inter alia work on:
• • Molecular mechanisms of inflammation and regeneration, for example in order to be able to treat rheumatic inflammations more effectively,
  • Research on the healing of fractures, bone defects and osteoporosis which can improve the introduction of the results of basic research into everyday hospital practice.

• Nutrition and metabolic diseases as well as endocrinological diseases.

  Priorities mentioned in this field were inter alia work on:
• • Molecular effects of food ingredients in order to better understand the significance of numerous unresearched food components,
  • Nutritional behaviour and in particular its influence even before birth and in early childhood on preventing overweight, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

• Cardio-vascular, lung and kidney diseases.

  Priorities mentioned in this field were inter alia work on:
• • Molecular diagnostics in order to develop new chemistry laboratory and imaging diagnostic procedures at molecular level and thus be able to depict disease processes at an early stage,
  • Risk assessment and individualized therapy for treatment of high-risk cardio-vascular patients,

• Infections, chronic inflammation and inflammatory skin diseases.

  Priorities mentioned in this field were inter alia work on:
• • Epidemiological studies on the burden of disease due to infections so that diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive measures can be optimized in large sections of the population,
  • Genetic factors of susceptibility to infectious diseases in order to be able to better assess the different individual risks of infectious diseases.

• Cancer.

  Priorities mentioned in this field were inter alia work on:
• • Resistance to therapy, improved understanding of individual reactions to cancer therapies,
  • Development of vaccines against cancer - similar to vaccines for cervical cancer.

• Neurological and psychological diseases and diseases of the sensory organs.

  Priorities mentioned in this field were inter alia work on:
• • Neurobiology and psychobiology of aggressive, impulsive and addictive behaviour for studying the roots of this behaviour and its pathological disorders.
  • Early recognition of neurodegenerative diseases in order to be able to explain molecular and structural disease mechanisms, particularly in the case of dementia, and identify measurable signs of disease factors at an early stage.

Implementation

The BMBF has studied the 74 topic proposals in the Roadmap and implemented them in suitable funding measures. This has not taken place in the form of 74 individual measures but has involved pooling several topics and prioritizing them according to current developments.

One example is the Federal Government's reaction to SARS and the H5N1 virus with the government agreement of March 2006 to combat zoonoses - that is to say diseases which can be transferred from animals to humans.
Other examples are the calls for proposals on further disease-related competence networks on multiple sclerosis and on asthma and chronically obstructive lung diseases.

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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Roadmap for the Federal Government's Health Research Programme

  The BMBF's Health Research Council presented a Roadmap to shape the Federal Government's Health Research Programme in September 2007. It is intended to provide orientation on the way towards important future topics in health research. (PDF. 1.7MB; German Language)
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/10963.php)