The ethics of health research priority setting: a casebook

Overview

The resources available for health research at any given time – including money but also time, infrastructure and personnel – are scarce. Not every valuable research project can be carried out. Investing resources in one project takes resources away from others. This means that decisions must be made about which among the many possible valuable research projects should be conducted first. Health research priority setting is the process through which decisions or recommendations are made about what health research should be prioritized. It encompasses a range of activities that organizations may label “priority-setting exercises,” “strategic planning,” or “agenda setting.”

Since decisions about what health research is carried out are decisions about how to distribute scarce and very important potential benefits among different populations, such decisions are not merely technical. These decisions also incorporate value judgements—including concerning whose interests count and what constitutes a fair allocation of resources. This means that ethics is a fundamental element of research priority setting: to identifying the goals at which it aims, the way it is conducted, and who it involves.

This casebook is a companion to the WHO guidance on the ethics of health research priority setting. It comprises 14 cases and scenarios that illustrate how the ethical principles from that guidance can be put into practice by decision-makers, including funders, international organizations, governmental bodies, and research groups.