Bigger, Better, Sooner–Scaling Up for Success

Over the last twenty years, the field of epidemiology has seen a rapidly increasing interest in, and need for, addressing low-level risks, interactions as well as main effects, and simultaneous assessment of vast numbers of biomarkers. Multiple examples over this time have shown the necessity for very large, high-quality individual studies (e.g., biobanks) or consortia of studies for these efforts to be successful. The need for this will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. It will also be important to analyze and publish aggregated data much earlier in the discovery process than typical for past efforts.