Dear RG members?
Does someone know guidelines for identifying Knowledge Gaps in Health Research?
In the literature, there are some systematic reviews about the knowledge gasps in some areas (e.g. cardiovascular diseases); but there are not clear guidelines about how to identify those knowledge gaps.
Thank you.
Dear Andreas
This is a really interesting question that raises many issues! A few thoughts strike me.
i) Where there is existing evidence knowledge gaps can be defined by uncertainties directly related to this evidence in relation to the questions it asks- e.g. Evidence about a treatment for X is insufficient to prove benefit
ii) Knowledge gaps are defined by an assessment of what knowledge is needed.
Within systematic reviews, this implicitly happens when review questions are identified. Gaps might be identified by the absence of this evidence. In this respect knowledge gaps are defined by an interaction between experts and the evidence because experts define the knowledge that is required. However, expertise is loosely defined and there is no 'method' to identify the questions for which answers are required. Effectively this process happens implicitly with no 'method' other than peer reviewers agreeing that the questions for the review were sensible in the first place.
However, the emerging field of research prioritisation takes this one step further and involves the users of research in identifying the answers that are needed, with an assessment of what evidence is already available informing the ultimate prioritisation. This seems to me to address the issue you are grappling with. However, it is a complex consultative process in and of itself with multiple stakeholders involved.... The 'James Lind Alliance' has developed an approach that is now being adopted for the National Institute for Health Research in the UK - see the link below...
Dear Dr. Griffiths. Thank you for your advice. Where is the link? Best regards. Andres
Apologies - I missed the link off
http://www.jla.nihr.ac.uk/jla-guidebook/
Hi Andrés,
Don't know if you're still following this thread, but if you are; the most common way of identifying gaps in scientific knowledge (and I identify health science as a subset of science as a whole) is the existence of contradictions (light measured one way looks like a wave, measure it another way and it looks like a particle - leads to modern quantum theory), or (apparent) paradoxes (spending on health increases, followed by an fall in common indices of public health - current situation in the US). These are the issues that lead to real breakthroughs.
Dave
Knowledge gaps are defined by an assessment of what knowledge is needed.
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