Gaps in Research
Robert Eiss and Roger Glass
Over the past decade the global response to diseases of poverty has altered dramatically. Driven by what Dr. Bill Foege has called “spectacular inequities,” global initiatives have been directed at improving access to effective interventions for AIDS, TB and malaria, and broadening access to vaccines and health information. Deficiencies in health systems and trained personnel are persisting challenges on the ground, but we are also confronted with substantive gaps in knowledge about how to deliver new and proven interventions in impoverished settings – the subject of the emerging field of implementation science – as well the need for more effective tools. Both represent substantial research agendas.
How can we bring to scale the training of local scientists, develop and assimilate new knowledge, incorporate new technologies, and monitor impact? How can we help ensure that as responsibilities for large intervention programs are borne increasingly by national governments, that adequate human resources in biomedical science and locally relevant knowledge are developed in-country? The challenges are considerable. But as the architect Daniel Burnham famously remarked, “Make no small plans, they have no magic to stir men’s souls.” Burnham’s aphorism has much relevance for those engaged in global health research, given its potential to transform lives and livelihoods.
