How long does biomedical research take? Studying the time taken between biomedical and health research and its translation into products, policy, and practice

Table 3 Quantitative summary of time lags – years from “discovery” to UK implementation

Case study topics	Overall time lag in years from “discovery” to implementation (ie not always counting some initial discovery time)	Field: cardiovascular disease (CVD) or mental health (MH)	Intervention type	Lag from “discovery” to start of first phase I trial or human research	Lag from phase I to start of first phase II trial	Lag from phase II to start of first phase III trial	Lag from start of phase III or human research to first research review and synthesis	Lag from research review and synthesis to first policy statement	Lag from policy statement to implementation
1: Amlodipine	23 years	CVD	Pharmaceutical	3	1	2	10	7	0
2: Olanzapine	20 years	MH	Pharmaceutical	4	2	5	5	4	0
3: Abdominal aortic aneurysm screening	26 years	CVD	Screening	0	1	5	14	5	1
4a: Smoking reduction: Evidence on passive smoking to widespread bans	39 years	CVD	Public health	14	n/a	n/a	5	19	1
4b: Smoking reduction: Link between smoking and ill health to ban on advertising (Top TV ban, Bottom widespread ban)	26 years	CVD	Public health	12	n/a	n/a	6	8	0
	54 years	CVD	Public health	12	n/a	n/a	6	30	6
5: Cognitive behavioural therapy and depression	49 years	MH	Psychosocial	15	n/a	n/a	12	12	10
6: Cognitive behavioural therapy and schizophrenia	48 years	MH	Psychosocial	17	n/a	n/a	23	0	8
7: Early intervention for schizophrenia	18 years	MH	Service configuration/Health service delivery	6	n/a	n/a	Reviews after implementation	7	5

ISSN: 1478-4505