Disease Priorities

This editorial on "Disease Priorities" from the journal Nature makes the argument that governmental health organizations should focus on non-communicable diseases (NCD) as a research priority in the near future, since NCD's have been a major cause of death in recent years. This would be an interesting controversy to research: How should health organizations determine their research priorities? This author believes that fatality rates should determine the focus. But many other positions are possible: research should focus on diseases most likely to spread; research should focus on diseases that effect young and middle-aged people; research should focus on diseases that have the biggest impact on quality of life.