What priorities in prevention?
Tomatis, L.
La Medicina del Lavoro 89(2): 96-97
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-7818 PMID: 9673097 Document Number: 490741
The progress in knowledge on the etiology of tumours has not been matched by an adequate and effective practical application in prevention. Primary prevention shows its effects only in the long term; politicians and administrations therefore tend to neglect prevention in favour of other initiatives that reflect more directly on their possibilities of reelection. So one positive aspect of the new National Health Plan is that, for the first time, it officially recognizes the fundamental role of prevention in health preservation. Nevertheless, the problem remains of the financial dependence of most of biomedical research on direct or indirect funding by pharmaceutical corporations, plus the tendency, even by public funding sources or private donations, to prefer research projects where the economic investment is justified a priori. The research projects aimed at primary prevention do not lend themselves to a rapid or relatively easy quantitative evaluation. For these projects, in spite of their importance in the context of a public health plan, there is a risk of ever increasing difficulty in competing for founding.