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Map clusters of diseases to tackle multimorbidity

Many people now have two or more diseases at once. It is time to rethink funding, research, publishing, training and treatment for this growing problem.
  1. Christopher J. M. Whitty

    1. Christopher J. M. Whitty is chief medical officer for England and chief scientific adviser, Department of Health and Social Care, London, UK, and head of the National Institute for Health Research.

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  2. Fiona M. Watt

    1. Fiona M. Watt is executive chair, Medical Research Council, London, UK, and a researcher at King’s College London.

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A patient with an amputated leg looks out of the window of a hospital in Vietnam

People with diabetes are prone to many other comorbidities. Credit: Justin Mott/NYT/Redux/eyevine

More and more people the world over have two or more long-term diseases at once — known as multimorbidity. This is the case for at least half of Europe’s population aged 65 or older (more than 50 million people), for example1. And in the United Kingdom, the proportion of the population with multi-morbidity is expected2 to rise from 54% in 2015 to 68% in 2035. Science, and medicine, have been slow to respond to this change.

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Nature 579, 494-496 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00837-4

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