[The evaluation of the impact of biomedical research. Current situation and future perspectives]

Biomedical research significantly contributes both to social issues, such as improving quality of life and life expectancy, and to economic issues, such as employment. This is one of the reasons that explain the increasing demand for methods of assessing the socioeconomic impacts of research that would complement traditional methods of research assessment. Despite its inherent difficulty, assessment of the impacts of biomedical research is facilitated by a number of characteristics, such as the traceability of knowledge flow. However, methods of impact assessment should be considered as complementary to traditional evaluation methods. This article analyzes several fundamental issues concerning the evaluation of socioeconomic returns from biomedical research and also includes a brief presentation of the remaining articles included in this monograph.