A cure for all ills: what medical advances can we expect in 2017?

Miracles may not exist, but this year could see some key scientific breakthroughs. From dementia and zika to pain relief and customised drugs, here's a look at what we may hear about this year

In 2017, we can study the unimaginably small and share unimaginably vast amounts of data. But, as a GP involved in the day-to-day delivery of primary health care, I often wonder why, if so much is known, we can do so little? Why is there such a lag between the headline scientific discoveries and what a local GP can offer? Bridging that gap as speedily and effectively as possible is the aim of an emerging field of biomedical science called translational medicine. Scientists, healthcare professionals, pharma and funders are collaborating to translate science into solutions, or "bench to bedside". The mantra for governments and agencies that fund health services across the world is "value-based care" - basically, payment by results. To be fair, it's not all about cutting costs: the idea is to stop funding poor-value healthcare, and move towards an era of "precision medicine" in which your genomics, epigenomics (chemicals that tell the genome what to do), environmental exposure (eg pollution) and other factors guide the care you are offered.