WHO Report on Knowledge for Better Health. The World Health Organization released a draft of this report for comments. It will be presented at the World Ministerial Summit on Health Research in Mexico in November 2004, and aims to make more effective use of scientific and medical knowledge towards improving human health, particularly due to the urgent nature of certain diseases such as HIV, and the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of scientific research. A key component of this is access to information; see point 2 of the 7 points highlighted on the front page of the draft:
1. Science must be turned into action to improve people’s health; it must focus more on
the "how" rather than the "why", "where" or "what"
2. Knowledge must be accessible to all, in a form which is useful and can be acted upon
by different people and groups
3. All countries must create an environment in which research for health is seen as a
systematic effort, and will thus flourish
4. Research must be conducted according to universal ethical standards thus ensuring
that it will improve equity in health
5. A broader, more inclusive view of health research is needed and civil society has a
vital part to play
6. Research is an investment, not a cost, and governments must spend on it
7. Action Plan needed-now!
(source: Jo Anne Boorkman, BSDNET-L)
Posted by
Garrett at 4/22/2004 06:04:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
