A disease costing the Australian healthcare system $14 billion (US$9.3 billion) a year and affecting one in seven Australians receives only one percent of medical research funding.
Arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions account for 13 percent of the country’s total disease burden, on par with cardiovascular disease (13 percent), mental health (13 percent), and cancer (18 percent).
But the common inflammatory joint disease receives just a sliver of the Medical Research Future Fund compared with other diseases, according to a new report by Arthritis Australia.
Arthritis Australia’s medical director Prof. Susanna Proudman says there’s an obvious disparity in government commitment to funding research compared with the prevalence and cost of the disease….