• Published:October 6th, 2008
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• Category:Uncategorized

On 1st October our Development Director Shelley Gregory-Jones and I attended an evening event to promote public and patient involvement in biomedical research at the beautiful shiny new Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute (CRI), which is just down the road from our own base in the Strangeways Research Laboratory. Of course, we are not engaged in biomedical research ourselves, but we are strongly in favour of it, and it was also chance to publicise the PHG Foundation to a wider audience than usual and talk to different people.

A recent editorial in the journal Science calls for decisive action from the scientific community to boost public support and involvement for health research in the way that climate change became an issue of general public concern and interest (see A Populist Movement for Health?), so perhaps public involvement will become the ‘in’ thing. Not before time, either - I don’t think that the general public knows enough about biomedical research, and it would be great counter that through increasing involvement as well as educational efforts, which can risk giving the impression of Nasty Science Homework. But who better to involve in efforts to improve public health than the public? As the authors say: “In part, the science community is responsible because we have not effectively helped the public realize that without a higher national and international priority for basic research, a crisis in human health is not far off”.

The programme of talks at the CRI evening emphasised the importance of translational research in delivering improved health and the need for funding in this area - which fitted in perfectly with our own position of calling for more resources for the ‘end-stage’ of translation - not translational research or even health-services research, but policy development and implementation planning. Translation often comes across less compelling than the pushing-the-boundaries-of-knowledge basic research reported, but it is absolutely crucial for delivering the benefits of scientific research, which at the end of the day is what the public wants to see: quicker diagnosis, more effective treatment, and better health.

Cambridge is a great place for top-level research, so unsurprisingly there were some interesting talks and stands, including groups hoping to recruit public volunteers to take part in various clinical trials. But my personal feeling was that the obesity researchers who had a selection of cakes on their stand ought to be done for unreasonable enticement.