How Does Research and Development Affect Health?

How does research and development affect health? Continue reading to know more about the topic.

How Does Research and Development Affect Health?

Research and development in health is a process that involves the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information about health care. 

Research and development in health can be a way to improve the quality of a health care program or a way to provide new health information to the public.

Examples include:

• Clinical research, which is used to gather scientific data for clinical practice.
• Pre-clinical research, which studies how living systems work and how they may be affected by environmental factors.
• Health informatics, which focuses on developing and applying information technologies such as computer software and artificial intelligence in the health field.

Research refers to a process of gathering data and information about a particular subject to find out more about it. 

Development refers to a process of creating, producing, or making something.

Research and Development in Health: What Are the Challenges?

Many challenges may come up during research and development in health. The most common challenges include:

• Inadequate funding for research projects.
• Lack of collaboration between researchers from different countries.
• Lack of interest from the public in using the information.
• No interest from drug companies in investing money into new drugs because the drugs have not been proven effective.

How Can Research and Development in Health Benefits Society?

Researching and developing health care products can benefit society by helping people maintain their quality of life. 

For example, research on cochlear implants has led to a device that allows a person who is deaf to hear sounds again. 

Research has also led to improvements in treatments for conditions such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, and many others. 

As technology improves, so will the ability to develop new drugs and improve health care products that were not previously available. 

Medical researchers are now able to create drug-delivery systems that prolong the release of medication into the body.

These new drug-delivery systems can be used to treat a wide variety of health conditions.

Steps in Research and Development

The steps in research and development in health depend on the goal of the study. 

For example, a study may have the following steps:

• Identify a specific health condition or a symptom that occurs in a certain disease. 
• Identify the cause of the condition or the disease. 
• Design an experiment to test how the cause of the disease works. 
• Perform an experiment to test how the cause of the disease works. 
• Analyze the results of the experiment and research data to find out more about how the cause works, what additional tests need to be done, and what treatments should be used for patients with this disease. 
• Develop a treatment plan for patients with this disease. 
• Test how well various treatments work to treat this disease in animals and humans. 
• Provide information about the treatment plan for patients with this disease to doctors, public health agencies, medical associations, hospitals, and other health care providers.