Prizes for unpatentable surgical and radiotherapy techniques proven in trials
Nobody can patent a better way of operating or a shorter radiotherapy schedule, so nobody is rewarded for proving one. Prizes for technique improvements shown to work in trials would fill that gap.
An endowed prize programme paying substantial awards (for example $5 to $20 million shared among the trial team and institutions) for randomised trials that demonstrate a surgical or radiotherapy technique change improving survival, recurrence or major toxicity by a pre-specified margin, with the requirement that the technique is freely described and teachable. Technique innovations such as total mesorectal excision, sentinel node biopsy and hypofractionation have saved more lives and money than most drugs and earned their originators nothing comparable; a prize corrects the reward asymmetry at the margin and attracts talent to technique research.
- Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least · Surgery and radiotherapy cure more people than drugs do, but attract a fraction of the research investment.
- Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains · The system pays the same for a drug that adds two months as for a cure, so companies race to copy rather than to cure.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaA statutory minimum share of public trial money for surgery and radiotherapy
Shares A permanently funded international network for randomised cancer surgery trials, Robotic & minimally invasive surgery, SBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy), Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least.
- PersonTakeshi Sano
Shares A permanently funded international network for randomised cancer surgery trials, Robotic & minimally invasive surgery.
- IdeaPay per course of radiotherapy, not per session, so short courses are not penalised
Shares SBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy), Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least, Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains.
- TrialFIRES & SENTOR (sentinel node mapping)
Shares Sentinel lymph node biopsy, Robotic & minimally invasive surgery.
- IdeaA video-based surgical quality registry linking assessed skill to cancer outcomes
Shares A permanently funded international network for randomised cancer surgery trials, Robotic & minimally invasive surgery, Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least.
- CompanyBrainlab
Shares Robotic & minimally invasive surgery, SBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy).
- IdeaMilestone prizes for first-in-class mechanisms reaching human proof of concept
Shares A billion-dollar prize for the first durable cure of a lethal metastatic cancer, Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains.
- TrialMSLT-II
Shares Sentinel lymph node biopsy, Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least.