The Need for Population-Based Epidemiology Studies in the United States

Joseph K. McLaughlin
Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt Medical School, President, International Epidemiology Institute, 1455 Research Blvd., Suite 550, Rockville, Maryland, 20850-3127, USA

ABSTRACT

MEDICAL AND COSMETIC IMPLANTS are becoming more widespread and are being implanted at younger ages. These trends underscore the pressing public-health need to examine the long-term health effects of implants using an epidemiologic approach. While considerable research has been performed to evaluate long-term local and systemic effects of implants in laboratory animals, the same is not true regarding such effects in humans; also, as we now know, some of the effects found in animal research, such as sarcomas at the site of implant, appear not to be relevant in humans.