title: Mapping global health research investments, time for new thinking--a Babel Fish for research data.
abstract: Today we have an incomplete picture of how much the world is spending on health and disease-related research and development (R&D). As such it is difficult to align, or even begin to coordinate, health R&D investments with international public health priorities. Current efforts to track and map global health research investments are complex, resource-intensive, and caveat-laden. An ideal situation would be for all research funding to be classified using a set of common standards and definitions. However, the adoption of such a standard by everyone is not a realistic, pragmatic or even necessary goal. It is time for new thinking informed by the innovations in automated online translation - e.g. Yahoo's Babel Fish. We propose a feasibility study to develop a system that can translate and map the diverse research classification systems into a common standard, allowing the targeting of scarce research investments to where they are needed most.
authors.affiliation: Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, World Health Organization, Avenue Appia, Geneva, CH-1211, Switzerland. terryr@who.int
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Terry
authors.forename: Liz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guzman
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.forename: Roderik F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Viergever
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D014943:Global Health / Q000191:economics*; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007449:Investments / Q000191:economics*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000379:methods*