Social value of biomedical research

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This page discusses the social value of biomedical research | View other pages on the social value of particular activities

This page discusses the social value of biomedical research, and is supplementary to the page on biomedical research as a career option. The page is currently under preparation, but we've included a few links to help get you started.

80000 Hours material

80000 Hours blog category biomedical research discusses biomedical research as a career option from the point of view of doing the most good. The following posts are particularly useful:

A comparison of medical research and earning to give by Benjamin Todd, 80000 Hours blog, December 13, 2013.
Case study: earning to give compared to medical research by Benjamin Todd, 80000 Hours blog, February 19, 2014, which includes a user evaluation of their comparison linked above.
Is most research a waste? by Robert Wiblin, 80000 Hours, April 17, 2013.
High Impact Science by Carl Shulman, 80000 Hours, November 15, 2011.

GiveWell material

GiveWell is not focused on providing career advice, but rather, on judging giving money to life sciences as a philanthropic option. But there is considerable overlap in the nature of concerns, so we link to some of GiveWell's research below:

Returns to Life Sciences Funding by Holden Karnofsky, GiveWell blog, January 15, 2014.
Exploring Life Sciences Funding by Holden Karnofsky, GiveWell blog, January 7, 2014 (a prequel to the post linked above).