Cross-disease spillover from research funding: Evidence from four diseases.

There is widespread appreciation for the role of research in addressing health problems. However, there is limited evidence on the extent to which research can be targeted to specific diseases. Analyses highlighting a concentration of research funding towards certain diseases have prompted growing scrutiny over the allocation of research funding.

Manual versus machine: How accurately does the Medical Text Indexer (MTI) classify different document types into disease areas?

The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) for classifying journal articles.

Attitudes to vaccination: a critical review.

This paper provides a consolidated overview of public and healthcare professionals' attitudes towards vaccination in Europe by bringing together for the first time evidence across various vaccines, countries and populations. The paper relies on an extensive review of empirical literature published in English after 2009, as well as an analysis of unpublished market research data from member companies of Vaccines Europe. Our synthesis suggests that hesitant attitudes to vaccination are prevalent and may be increasing since the influenza pandemic of 2009.

CLAHRCs in practice: combined knowledge transfer and exchange strategies, cultural change, and experimentation.

Objectives: The nine NIHR CLAHRCs are collaborations between universities and local NHS organizations that seek to improve patient outcomes through the conduct and application of applied health research. The theoretical and practical context within which the CLAHRCs were set up was characterized by a considerable degree of uncertainty, and the CLAHRCs were established as a natural experiment.

Methods: We adopted a formative and emergent evaluation approach.

Vaccine innovation, translational research and the management of knowledge accumulation.

What does it take to translate research into socially beneficial technologies like vaccines? Current policy that focuses on expanding research or strengthening incentives overlooks how the supply and demand of innovation is mediated by problem-solving processes that generate knowledge which is often fragmented and only locally valid. This paper details some of the conditions that allow fragmented, local knowledge to accumulate through a series of structured steps from the artificial simplicity of the laboratory to the complexity of real world application. Poliomyelitis is used as an illustrative case to highlight the importance of experimental animal models and the extent of co-ordination that can be required if they are missing.

Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Management: A Review of the Evidence to Inform the Development of Quality Indicators.

This article aims to inform the development of quality indicators for postmenopausal osteoporosis management through (a) assessing the evidence for screening and diagnosis of osteoporosis and related risk factors, and for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and osteoporosis-related fractures; (b) describing current practice for managing postmenopausal osteoporosis in Europe; and (c) highlighting existing gaps in the evidence base and management practices in Europe. Analyses involved a comprehensive review of reviews regarding the screening and diagnosis of osteoporosis and related risk factors and the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and osteoporosis-related fractures. While this identified a well-developed evidence base on the effects of selected treatments on clinical outcomes of postmenopausal osteoporosis and associated fractures, and on the usefulness of selected simple risk factor assessment tools to identify postmenopausal women who would benefit from further diagnostic assessment, uncertainties remain regarding for example the optimal use of pharmacological interventions for preventive purposes and the effectiveness of population-based screening.

Public-private collaborations and partnerships in stratified medicine: making sense of new interactions.

The field of personalised or stratified medicine is evolving alongside the formation of a plethora of public/private partnerships and collaborations. These new institutional forms, or 'social technologies', are varied and emerge in response to several drivers, including the need to draw on a broader base of data inputs relating to genomics, patient behaviour and healthcare system differentiation. This paper discusses some of these drivers of partnerships and collaborations.

Healthcare Technology Co-Operatives: Filling a Niche in the English R&D Landscape.

The Department of Health (England) commissioned this evaluation of the pilot Health Technology Cooperatives (HTCs), which are part of its research infrastructure. Its purpose is to explore how this initiative has affected relationships between clinical, industrial and academic partners; how the HTCs fit into the current health innovation landscape; and the alignment of HTC activities to the goals set out in the NIHR strategy. Since the HTC scheme was intended to focus on medical devices, this review investigated how medical device development is being pursued by other similar entities in England, Australia and the USA.