Medical Breakthroughs in 2025: Rare Disease as the Leading Indicator of Meaningful Progress
If 2024 was the year medicine proved that steady, methodical progress could deliver profound impact without spectacle, 2025 is the year those advances began to compound, converge, and translate into unmistakable clinical consequence. Many of the defining breakthroughs of 2025 did not emerge in isolation. Instead, they represent the maturation of trends already visible last […]
Rare Disease Networks: Pharma’s Key to Reducing Risk and Driving Innovation
In rare diseases, patients aren’t on the sidelines – they are central partners. Their lived experience fills critical evidence gaps and shapes what “meaningful outcomes” truly are. Rare Disease Networks bring together patients, clinicians, regulators, and pharma to create smarter, more feasible development pathways. We explore how and why in our latest blog, written by […]
A Journey of Resilience: Marcus’ Fight Against Rare GRIN2A Disorder (Part I)
At LDA Research, we know that behind every data point is a real person, a real family, and a real story. We’re sharing one of those stories from Mariah from Minnesota, USA. It’s a story about her, her son and navigating a rare disease diagnosis, the challenges of accessing specialized care, and what she’s learned […]
The Power of Networks: Why Rare Diseases Demand Collaboration
Senior moderator Leigh Hart explores the role of pharmaceutical companies in the Rare Disease Networks, what was planned and how it has worked out. Rare diseases are far from rare. An estimated 300 to 400 million people live with one, yet their needs are often invisible to health systems, researchers, and the medical sciences industry. […]
Can AI replace human interaction in market research?
Senior Moderator Andrew Grant explores the capabilities and limitations of AI in qualitative research, sharing first hand insights from an experiment using Google Gemini to conduct an interview. This week, I’ve been trying to replace myself with AI. In 2023, a Goldman Sachs report (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65102150) estimated that AI would supplant up to 300 million jobs […]
A Call to Action for Inclusive Research
This Chronic Disease Awareness Day patient advocate Roxanne Murray strives to ensure no one is left unseen or unheard in the MS, chronic illness and disability community The Invisibility of MS: What You Don’t See Still Deserves Support As I approach my 19th year of living with Multiple Sclerosis, I’ve come to understand just how […]
Celebrating 10 years of excellence
Our senior research manager and blog contributor Rachel Barnes is celebrating working with LDA Research for a decade. Here she shares her secrets to successful project management Rachel originally from London, started her career teaching RE, following a master’s degree in philosophy before moving into educational consultancy. She left education to start her family and […]
What more in the name of love?
Issy Clegg examines healing with pride: What LGBTQ+ activism gave to healthcare – and what’s still missing Despite a history of oppression members of the LGBTQ+ community have played a crucial role in revolutionising healthcare expanding its scope of inclusivity for all patients. The LGBTQ+ community has helped to push healthcare into the 21st century, […]
SEEN & HEARD
This year, World Vitiligo Day 2025 will be celebrating its 15th anniversary at an AI-focused summit in Toronto, Canada. The theme is ‘Innovation for Every Skin’ where it will look at leveraging artificial intelligence to transform vitiligo diagnosis, treatment and patient care. Vitiligo is a condition that is more than skin deep. The more common […]
Will abolishing NHS England lead to better care?
While removing NHS England will eliminate some bureaucratic overhead, it won’t solve the system’s deeper issues. Without substantial investment, meaningful workforce support, and a coherent social care strategy, the core challenges facing the NHS will remain. Structural change alone isn’t a silver bullet – what’s urgently needed is stable leadership, integrated approaches, sustainable funding, and […]
Welcoming our new senior research manager Julia Heck
LDA Research has recently welcomed Julia Heck to our team as Senior Research Manager. Market research holds a special place in Julia’s heart as she met her fiancé at her first job. Julia is from Munich, Germany and has lived in the UK for more than a decade. She is fluent in German and English. […]
POSITIVELY RARE
Erin Paterson shares her experience of being gene positive for the rare Huntington disease, and how she is on a mission to positively impact other people’s lives by writing and speaking about genetic disease, depression and infertility in support of Huntington’s disease awareness day When I rolled out of bed that Saturday morning my entire […]