Editorial: We need better systems for turning evidence into action
Misinformation — such as the idea that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine can prevent or treat COVID-19 — has flourished during the pandemic.There’s a saying in medicine that decisions were once made by GOBSAT: good old boys sat around a table, pontificating about their own opinions. The GOBSAT method is elitist and exclusionary, and it means that no one knows on what solid evidence, if any, a decision is based.
But researchers are on the case. In the past couple of months, three reports have been published that show what can be done to improve evidence-informed decisions, not only during a pandemic, but in many spheres of public policy, including combating climate change, reducing inequality and improving global health. The reports are ambitious — idealistic, even. But together, they visualize an efficient machinery that can supply fast but rigorous evidence, on time, to those who need it.
Each country needs a mechanism for supplying evidence that is appropriate to its systems of governance and wider needs, but there are some common, essential ingredients too — such as the need for trusted, long-term relationships between researchers and decision makers. Politicians, says Boeira, typically want to call their favourite expert and ask them what to do. By building trust, she wants to make sure that their first call is instead aimed at finding the bestavailable evidence.
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