A More Indepth Look At Funding For Medical Technology

So far I have given examples of awesome technologies that can be extremely beneficial to the world and especially people who have certain disabilities; however, I haven't spoke much of the actual funding for medical technology. Simply put, funding does exist for medical tech and the funding has actually increased over the past few years. In 1999, the federal government appropriated 11.9 billion dollars towards Medical Research and Development. 8.3 billion dollars of this money went to universities for R&D. The money more than doubled by 2004 when 28 billion dollars was given to medical R&D by the government. This is a lot of money; however, medical research and development requires hundreds of billions of dollars. People question the use of this large sum of money because very few products seem to be completed compared to the amount of money spent on R&D. This is because the actual process of creating a new technology can take up to 10 to 15 years before a product is completed. Not only can the process take awhile and cost a lot, but for funding to continue on a certain technology that technology must be able to make a profit once it is created or it will lose support from many private organizations. The government may place billions of dollars into the medical R&D industry, but investment by private companies has grown past what the government spends. As already stated, private companies must see that a product they are investing in will turn a profit once it is developed, or the company will lose interest in the product. So just like any other R&D group, medical R&D sometimes has to change their ideas slightly if they want funding and adjust to a more economical or sellable product.

Beyond the scope of simply trying to find funds is the question of do people actually support money being appropriated into medical R&D over other things such as health care. One study showed that roughly 75% of U.S. seniors supported R&D. I am not too surprised by this, but at the same time roughly 40 million plus Americans are not medically insured. After reading those numbers, I could see why some people say medical R&D is not as important as healthcare support. However, I think R&D is at least as important as healthcare because R&D can save thousands of lives in the future. One way in which it can do this which is not thought of often by people is making the processes we already have even faster. Some tests for diseases can take hours or even days. This is precious time some people don't have. I don't have any numbers, but I would assume at least a few lives could be saved every year if the tests and technology that we have could run faster. I believe health care is very important and definitely need, but if we don't fund medical research then we cannot expect the field of medicine to improve, and instead we will be stuck with trying to make do with what we have.

I have found many different sites which tell of independent founding organizations or funds that were given by local governments. Some organizations such as the Ascent Medical Technology Fund which was setup to support medical research, are completely supported privately. Even programs in my home state of North Carolina are awarding money for projects which plan to setup research institutions. From this and other funding sources I have found, I would conclude that funding definitely exists for medical R&D if a company tries hard enough to get the funds. Whether or not the funds are enough is hard to say. Certainly more funds would be more beneficial and expedite the research process. My point is that I want this funding to continue, and I strongly believe the funding should continue or even increase. If one device such as a pacemaker could save hundreds or thousands of lives, then I believe the device is worth the time and money spent to research and develop it.

Here is a link to some ways in which companies try to get funds:https://www.godaddyconnections.com/ResourceView.aspx?resourceid=1273&ci=0

Here are a few links about different funds that have been given or about different funds that companies can try to receive:

http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/gcmi-center.htm

http://www.texasnano.net/pdfs/Emerging%20Technology%20Fund%20White%20Paper.pdf

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32413.php

http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/4952/

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS131678+09-Jun-2009+PRN20090609

http://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/techgapfund09.cfm