State of UK research

The working group's report focuses on serious weakness in two key areas: experimental medicine and clinical trials (box). Up until the 1970s, the United Kingdom was internationally recognised for its contribution to characterising diseases by careful examination and testing in patients. However, the development of methods to investigate the molecular and genetic basis of disease has since shifted research away from the bedside and into the laboratory. The surge in activity in molecular science has led to a substantial reduction in both research and researchers in clinical science. Pressure on NHS beds and facilities in teaching hospitals is also pushing out clinical research so that the NHS now has limited capacity to evaluate the new tools that are emerging from academia and industry.

Many of the methods used for large clinical trials, cohort studies, and meta-analyses were also developed in the United Kingdom. Application of these methods has had a big effect on the health of individuals and the NHS—for example, in showing the link between smoking and lung cancer and the benefit of statins in patients at risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke.1 2 Despite the clear benefits of such research, funding of trials is falling from all sources.3 …