1.2. Preventing disease

The development of prevention and screening programmes depends on the identification of early biomarkers (including functional and behavioural) of risk and of disease onset, and their design should be informed by internationally accepted criteria. Their deployment depends on the testing and validation of screening methods and programmes. Knowledge should be generated and methods developed for identifying individuals and populations at a clinically relevant increased risk of disease. Identifying individuals and populations at high risk of disease will allow personalised, stratified and collective strategies for efficacious and cost-effective disease prevention to be developed. An improved understanding of health, disease and disease processes throughout the life cycle is needed to develop new and more effective diagnostics and theranostics. Innovative and existing methods, technologies and tools will be developed with the goal of significantly improving disease outcomes through earlier, more accurate diagnosis and prognosis and by allowing for accessible, more patient-adapted, treatment. There is a need for more effective preventive and therapeutic interventions and vaccines and evidence-based vaccination schemes for an expanded range of diseases, including poverty-related diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected infectious diseases and also for other major diseases. This relies on a better understanding of disease and disease processes and their consequent epidemics and on clinical trials and associated studies being undertaken.

← anx_I__cpt_1__cpt_6__cpt_1__cpt_1__cpt_3__text_1 · All articles · 1.2.1. Developing effective prevention and screening programmes and improving the assessment of disease susceptibility →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.