A framework for better hospitals and pharmacies

The EU's next wave of research investment should ensure that more European health research leads to improvements in hospitals and pharmacies, according to the European Commission.

The problem of translating quality research into results is a major weakness in EU healthcare and must be tackled, according to Octavio Quintana Trias, director of health in the Commission's research department.

Most of the _6 billion set aside for health research under the Seventh Framework Programme for research (FP7) will be overseen by Quintana Trias's department, with some involvement from the health, science, information and environment departments.

"What usually happens here is that the researchers, who are usually very good in Europe, will publish the outcome of their work but are then not interested in following it up," he says.

To have any chance of being turned into a real product or healthcare service, basic research has to go through pre-clinical and then clinical trials. Pre-clinical trials include safety and efficacy tests on animals or other human alternatives. Clinical tests involve testing the new findings on people, in hospitals and clinics.

"In Europe there is too often a gap between basic research and the other stages," says Quintana Trias. "A lot of research is lost in this way. We have to fight this and fund research into finding solutions."

FP7 money could go towards, for example, looking for ways to make it easier for basic and applied researchers to talk to each other, or training non-specialists to bridge the gap between the two stages of research.

Moving research laboratories closer to hospitals and healthcare centres would also make a big difference, suggests Quintana Trias.

He says research was needed into what happened to the results of clinical research.

He asks: "How do the clinical tests translate to clinical practice? How do physicians take decisions on what to use and how? How do patients comply with prescriptions?"

Antibiotics are a typical example of a problem at this final stage, according to Quintana Trias. Many people will stop taking these drugs after a few days because they feel better, not understanding the risk of building up antibiotic resistance unless the full course is completed.

FP7 will also be used to fund research into the different healthcare systems used in the 25 member states. Countries could then, in theory, learn from each other.

"On average in the EU, 80% of healthcare is publicly funded," explains Quintana Trias. "This means there is a lot of central data in every country and it is easier to make comparisons than it would be if healthcare was private."

Such research was a good example of when it made sense for research to be done at EU-level, he adds. "The amount of data involved is enormous and you need an overview of everything."

Another FP7 research topic, however, shows the difficulty of taking action other than at a national level.

In a discussion of FP7 funding for stem-cell research last month, a final deal was almost scuppered by deep national divisions over the ethics of using embryos in this emerging science (see below left).

He has no doubts about the importance of stem-cell research. "If there is one field of research that is very promising, it is this one...What we certainly need is research into both adult stem-cell research and embryonic stem-cell research." For now, he says, a deal banning EU-funding for only embryonic stem-cell research would be workable.

In the long-run, Quintana Trias expects public opinion to swing behind the cutting-edge science: "It will take a long time, but opposition will disappear the day there is a therapy based on embryonic stem-cell experiments," he predicts.

The EU's next wave of research investment should ensure that more European health research leads to improvements in hospitals and pharmacies, according to the European Commission.