Suchergebnisse

Growing investments in health research by governments and charitable organizations have fueled an increase in collaborative research projects between investigators from affluent and developing countries. Current international guidelines are silent on common intra-consortium data-sharing issues that arise in the context of such collaborations. A lack of guidance on intra-consortium data sharing threatens to undermine the success of crucial research ventures. In this work we outline some of the practical problems commonly faced by investigators working in multi-institutional, international genomic collaborations and offer recommendations on these issues. A data sharing policy should be prospectively negotiated and concluded between collaborators as early as possible. Sponsors of research, including those from developing countries, should issue detailed guidance on the above and related issues as doing so will facilitate research and catalyze scientific progress.

Although the 20th century saw a major expansion of the world economy, impressive military/security advances, and spectacular progress in science and technology, the grim reality in the first decade of the new millennium is that human life, health, and security remain under severe threat—but now from the adverse effects of inexorably widening disparities in wealth, health, and knowledge within and between nations. The gap between the income of the richest and poorest 20% of people in the world increased from a 9-fold difference at the beginning of the 20th century to 30-fold by 1960—and since then to over 80-fold by 2000 (Figure 1). Although life expectancy has improved dramatically worldwide during this century, this trend has been reversed in the poorest countries in recent years [1]. The challenge of achieving improved health for a greater proportion of the world's population is one of the most pressing problems of our time and is starkly illustrated by the threat of infectious diseases.