Rethinking biobanking and translational medicine in the Netherlands: how the research process stands to matter for patient care.

Biobanking has been identified as one of the key components of translational medicine, and while current models for translation tend to focus their attention on how the products of research projects are fed back into health-care practices, we suggest that in addition to that the research process itself can have beneficial effects on the delivery of high-quality health care by streamlining diagnostic and follow-up protocols, reduced patient waiting times, and facilitating data comparison across patients. This Viewpoint is based on experiences with, and observations of, the neurodegenerative component of a clinical biobanking initiative in the Netherlands called the Parelsnoer Institute (PSI), which links all eight of the University Medical Centers for harmonized and standardized collection and storage processes for multiple disease conditions.