Research project IM/RT/23/NEED (Research action IM)
The identification of unmet health-related needs is crucial for the development of a needs-based healthcare policy and innovation. Meeting unmet needs is a common objective of many stakeholders in the health system. Although there is no single definition of unmet health-related needs, there is a consensus that these can be approached both from the perspective of the individual patient and from the societal perspective. In the NEED project, health-related needs are defined as the specific needs related to a particular health condition, which encompasses the needs of individuals affected by the condition and possible broader societal needs that result from the impact of the condition on segments of society not directly afflicted by the condition (e.g. transmissibility, impact on informal caregivers, environmental impact).
Knowledge gap
There is currently no research structure in place to develop, organize and/or coordinate this scientific activity, while the expertise, experience and part of the data are available at several Belgian federal institutions.
Objectives
The overall aim of NEED is to develop an independent research infrastructure that collects evidence on unmet health-related needs, both from the patients’ perspective and that of society, and stores it in a database that can be used by all relevant stakeholders.
Objective 1: Define the NEED evidence database structure, including the criteria to assess patient and societal needs, the type of evidence that has to be collected for each criterion, the possible evidence sources and their related quality.
Objective 2: Start filling the NEED database, by collecting evidence on patient and societal needs related to health issues with potential high unmet needs.
Objective 3: Disseminate the information of NEED to all relevant stakeholders, both nationally and internationally, ensuring data protection (in particular for rare diseases) and secure secondary use of data.
The project consists of six work packages:
- WP1: Project coordination, project management and reporting
- WP2: Development of scientific methods and procedures for a solid research infrastructure
- WP3: Selection of research topics for the proof-of-concept of the NEED approach
- WP4: Execution of case studies
- WP5: Data management
- WP6: Dissemination and exploitation plan for the NEED database
