John R. Hoffman is a Professor of Biology, public speaker and a scientist examining the recovery of the nervous system after injury. Since 2006 he has written several unpublished manuscripts and he is currently working on the first Nathaniel Smythe novel and short story collection. He spends his spare time with his family and running.

18 Diseases and their causes

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, the student will be able to:

  1. Identify the major causes of death in the United States.
  2. Briefly describe the disease process associated with the cause of death.

Diseases and their causes

This min-lecture briefly examines the top 10 causes of death in the United States before considering how research funding should be allocated. The handout for this presentation can be downloaded and printed.

Reading:

Healthy Living. Centers for Disease Control and Protection. There is no specific reading assignment for this topic, but I would like you to look over some common diseases that have affected you or others you know in order to consider a healthy lifestyle.

Healthy Living. MedlinePlus. U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. There is no specific reading assignment for this topic, but I would like you to look over some common diseases that have affected you or others you know in order to consider a healthy lifestyle.

Assignment: How should we allocate funds to research cures for Diseases?
The National Institutes of Health are the primary funder of biomedical research in the United States. Even with an annual budget of approximately 32 billion dollars, the funds have to be allocated to research investigating a range of diseases and many projects are funded. Each year people argue for more money for specific areas. Disparity appears when you look at the amount of funds by number of deaths from the disease, number of people affected by the disease, costs of treating the disease, etc.

In your discussion group, discuss what criteria should be used in deciding what proportion of available funds should be allocated to support research for a specific disease type.

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