This focus on individual institutes created the model under which researchers would focus on single diseases such as AIDS, breast cancer, diabetes, or renal disease. Biomedical research became focused on studying discrete illnesses instead of addressing the multitude of diseases a person might have. Disease specific research became the predominant model of biomedical research in the latter half of the 20th century. The approach to conducting biomedical research may require a new model to respond to the growing prevalence of people with multiple chronic diseases.