Why do Research?
To live longer, healthier and more comfortable lives.
For humans, the increase in our life span has been largely due to the many advances in medical research. Medical research is a process of using scientific methods with tto learn and manage human diseases, prevent and treat illness and promote public health.
Among the major benefits of medical research have been vaccines for polio and measles, insulin treatment for diabetes, new types of antibiotics for infections, treatments for AIDS, statins for high cholesterol (which leads to stroke & heart disease), new surgical methods, like microsurgery, and new and successful treatments for many types of cancer.
Many new treatments are also expected out of the human-genome project, but many challenges remain, including the emergence of antibiotic resistance, environmental toxins, and the obesity epidemic.
How does research work?
Medical research uses the scientific method to improve human health and well-being. It is often over long periods of time, in many stages, and with many hurdles to overcome. For cancer, medical research is proving vital in discovering new treatments and drugs to improve longevity (life spans) and patients’ quality of life.
The very first stage of research is to identify the problem and then develop some ideas as to how to combat it. Researchers then create a proposal to investigate, and from this, to secure funding. Funding is important as without it, medical research cannot happen.
Researchers then apply for funding, from sources like government, business, individuals, fundraising groups, or pharmaceutical or biotech companies. When funds are secured, research can begin, by collecting data and testing their ideas.
Where is cancer research done?
Researchers work at medical facilities in hospitals, research institutes or in universities. Often pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies can also be involved in the research or later, the production of a new medical treatment. If studies advance to a clinical trial, these usually only occur in hospitals or university research clinics. Medical research encompasses a broad range of scientific studies and is split into two types, pre-clinical and clinical research:
Pre-clinical research
Pre-clinical research bridges the gap between the ‘discovery’ and the clinical trials. Pre-clinical research is divided between basic research and translational research.
Basic, or discovery research builds our understanding of complex concepts and lays the foundation for further research.
Translational research builds on basic research by bringing specialists and researchers together to refine and advance the application of a proposed medical intervention (for example a new drug or device). Its results must show that the new intervention (eg. drug) can work safely in humans.
Clinical research
Clinical research evaluates whether a medical intervention, such as a new drug or medical device, can work safely and effectively within patients. To test a medical invention, researchers will use volunteer patients in clinical trials. There are four phases to clinical trials:
- Phase 1 trials - test the safety of the drug on small groups.
- Phase 2 trials - use a larger group and test the accuracy of phase 1, and the efficacy of the drug.
- Phase 3 trials look at safety and efficacy in a larger population.
- Phase 4 trials can be run after the new treatment is made available for public use. This phase is not essential but can be used to monitor and record side effects in the real world.
To find out more about clinical trials, speak to your GP or specialist. There is more information at Australian Clinical Trials.
Publication
Publishing is an important stage in medical research, as it allows a study to be reviewed and replicated by other researchers in the relevant communities. Publishing helps research to be shared with other scientists, and it can be further tested, validated, and used to advance our knowledge.
Does research take long?
New treatments can take 10 years or more to develop and a clinical trial or release. This is to ensure the safety of patients and that the new treatment works without causing harm. The time it takes is affected by the type of cancer and the number of patients available for clinical trials, the type of treatment, the follow-up period and many other factors.
Why is medical research important?
Research is the only way cures and treatments for patients suffering from a disease or condition can be found and tested to know they work, and they
Advancing Research
Advances in medical science and technology have underpinned the huge leaps in human life expectancy and the quality of life we enjoy today.
Our ancestors and early humans did not usually live long enough to develop many of today’s conditions - such as heart disease, cancer, or loss of mental function. They also didn’t suffer the diseases and conditions resulting from high-calorie foods, over consumption, and sedentary lifestyles – and the ailments and diseases of the modern world. (obesity, diabetes, heart disease…).
Increasing Life Expectancy
30,000 years and prior. Early man died of injuries in hunting, conflicts, fights, food scarcity, infections, childbirth and malnutrition. Hunter-gatherer diseases were often spread by animals: rabies, yellow fever, tuberculosis. Life Expectancy: 30 years
10,000 - 3,000BC Neolithic. Development of agriculture, irrigation & settlement. Settled populations bring contamination of stored food and water supplies; diseases of cholera, smallpox, typhoid, polio, influenzas, malaria. Life Expectancy: 38 years
3000BC – 500AD – Classical. As people moved to live in towns the were more at risk of communicable diseases – smallpox, TB, scarlet fever, gastroenteritis. Water-borne disease and violence were causes of death. . Life Expectancy: 35 years
500 – 1500AD – Medieval. The middle-ages began with increase in life expectancy (to 48 years) from urbanisation, but famines from crop failure then bubonic plague and black death spread across Europe & Asia. Life Expectancy: 38 years
1500 – 1900 Medieval to Victorian. Urban areas and crowded, dirty cities brought death by typhus, rickets, diphtheria, cholera & tuberculosis. From the 1800's we improved public health, sanitation and water. Life Expectancy: 40 years
1900 – 1950 Modern. Major impact of medical research, technology and public health. Better conditions, food security, immunisation, antibiotics, & education (hospitals, GP’s, nursing) & sanitation. Life Expectancy: 75 years
1950+ Today. Bin the modern world, the biggest killers are based in lifestyle from heart disease, cancer and stroke. Life Expectancy: 85 years
Medical Research – A Timeline
Advances in medical science and technology have underpinned the huge leap in human life expectancy. These have been achieved through both theoretical and applied research across the ages.
Landmarks in Medical Science
460BC Birth of Hippocrates - begins the study of medicine.
300BC Diocles writes first known anatomy book.
1010 Avicenna writes The Canon of Medicine.
1543 Human anatomy. Vesalius publishes De Fabrica Corporis Humani.
1590 Microscope. Invented by Zacharius Jannssen.
1670 Blood cells first identified by Anton van Leeuwenhoek.
1796 Smallpox vaccine. Edward Jenner develops a process of vaccination for smallpox, the first vaccine for any disease.
1816 Stethoscope. French physician Laennec invents the stethoscope. The sounds made by the heart and lungs can be heard more clearly.
1818 Blood transfusion. First performed by James Blundell.
1847 Chloroform. James Simpson, professor of midwifery at the University of Edinburgh uses chloroform as an anaesthetic on humans.
1847 Hand washing. Hungarian scientist Semmelweis shows that doctors were responsible for transmitting fatal post-partum infections in hospitals. A pioneer of antiseptic procedures, he was called the "saviour of mothers". In the time before germ theory was discovered, he was not able to explain how washing reduced the number of deaths and was mocked for asking medical staff to wash their hands.
1851 Ophthalmoscope. The instrument revolutionised ophthalmology, allowing physicians to examine the inside of the human eye.
1853 Syringe. Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood develop the syringe.
1857 Germs. Louis Pasteur identifies germs as the cause of disease.
1867 Antiseptic. Joseph Lister develops the use of antiseptic surgical methods and publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery. The death rate from infection after surgery decreases.
1870 Germ Theory of Disease. Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur establish the germ theory of disease.
1879 Vaccines. Pasteur develops vaccines for cholera, rabies and anthrax.
1890 Anti-toxins. Scientist Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and develops tetanus and diphtheria vaccines.
1893 Heart Surgery. African-American surgeon Daniel Hale Williams performs first successful documented heart surgery on a young black man after a stabbing. He survived and was discharged 51 days later.
1895 X-Rays. Discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen. Doctors in Europe and the US were now able to see gun shots, bone fractures, kidney stones. A new world of diagnosis and treatment was able to save lives.
1896 First vaccines for typhoid fever and bubonic plague.
1899 Aspirin. German chemist Felix Hoffman successfully created acetylsalicylic acid, used to relieve fever, pain and inflammation.
1901 Blood Groups. Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups.
1913 Electrocardiograph. Dr. Dudley-White pioneers use of the electrocardiograph – ECG.
1922 Insulin first used to treat diabetes.
1923-1937 Vaccines developed for diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis, tetanus, yellow fever and typhus.
1928 Penicillin & Antibiotics. Discovered when Alexander Fleming returned home from vacation to find a petri dish in his lab filled with a mould that was thriving while also limiting the growth of bacteria.
1942 Ultrasound. Karl Dussik’s first paper on medical ultrasound.
1952 Cardiac pacemaker. Zoll develops the first pacemaker. Salk develops the first polio vaccine.
1953 DNA. Watson and Crick identify the structure of the DNA molecule.
1954 Leukemia-fighting drug, developed by Gertrude Elion. Dr Joseph Murray performs the first kidney transplant.
1955 Polio vaccine. Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine.
1964-1974. Vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and chicken-pox.
1973 MRI. Lauterbur produces the first magnetic resonance image (MRI), a major advance in diagnostic imaging.
1974 Heart Transplants. Dr. Christian Bernard performs the first human heart transplant.
1975 CAT Scans. Ledley invents CAT scan technology.
1978 First test-tube baby is born.
1983 HIV. Identified the virus that causes AIDS.
1985 Artificial kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff.
1991. First cancer vaccine. Researchers create the first cancer vaccine, approved bt FDA in 2010.
1996 Cloning. First clone - Dolly the sheep.
2006 First vaccine to target a cause of cancer.
2019 Anti-virals. With work on them since the 1940’s, anti-virals stop a viral infection from reproducing. They have helped control the spread of viruses such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, rabies and COVID.
Today. AI. Current applications of artificial-intelligence in healthcare are broad, from disease diagnosis and discovering new drugs to personalised treatment plans and patient monitoring. Also being used in diagnosis, such as reviewing mammogram scans to detect signs of early breast cancer.
