The James Lind alliance: tackling treatment uncertainties together

Abstract

The James Lind Alliance is a nonprofit making initiative that was established in 2004. It brings patients and clinicians together in priority-setting partnerships to identify and prioritize unanswered questions about the effects of treatments that they agree are most important. This information will help ensure that those who fund health research are aware of what matters to both patients and clinicians. Research suggests involving patients in the prioritization of research questions in this way is rare. To date, the James Lind Alliance has completed prioritization exercises on asthma and urinary incontinence. Partnerships focusing on prostate cancer and vitiligo are in progress.