By Desire Uzochukwu
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched the first digital platform for health research prioritisation in its Eastern Mediterranean Region, aimed at helping countries identify critical evidence gaps, direct limited resources towards pressing health needs and improve policy decisions.
The platform is expected to strengthen collaboration between WHO technical teams and country offices, while enabling countries to establish national and institutional research priorities based on their specific health challenges and circumstances.
Speaking at the launch, Dr Adham Ismail, Officer-in-Charge of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, said the initiative would help governments and health policymakers make more systematic, transparent and evidence-based decisions amid competing demands on limited resources.
“Where should limited resources go? Which interventions will make the greatest difference? And where do we still lack the evidence needed to make the right choices?” Ismail asked, highlighting the difficult decisions facing health professionals and policymakers across the region.
“These are not simply research questions. They are questions that directly affect people’s health and lives,” he said.
Ismail explained that countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region face diverse challenges, ranging from protracted emergencies to strengthening health systems and advancing universal health coverage.
However, he said, limited resources and competing priorities made it necessary to determine which research questions required urgent attention.
“We cannot investigate every question at once. We must make choices. And those choices must be systematic, transparent, and guided by real health needs,” he said.
The WHO official noted that the organisation had supported countries in setting national health research priorities for many years, adding that the new platform represented a step towards making the process more efficient, collaborative and responsive to health system needs.
He said the tool would enable WHO teams to identify critical evidence gaps, establish shared research priorities and better align research activities with programme requirements and policy decisions.
Importantly, Ismail said, the platform was not designed exclusively for WHO, as countries would also be able to use it to set their own national or institutional research priorities.
He described this as an opportunity to strengthen national research systems and give countries greater influence over the direction of research efforts.
From research priorities to better healthcare
Ismail, however, cautioned that launching the platform alone would not guarantee better health outcomes, stressing that its value would depend on how effectively the priorities identified were translated into investments, partnerships and practical evidence.
“But launching a platform is not an achievement in itself. What matters is what we do with it – turning research priorities into investment, partnerships, and evidence that improves health outcomes,” he said.
He added that the ultimate goal was to generate relevant research evidence at the right time to improve health policies, services and people’s lives.
The initiative comes as countries face pressure to make difficult decisions about healthcare spending and interventions while addressing persistent evidence gaps and competing public health needs.
By supporting a more structured approach to research prioritisation, the platform is intended to help decision-makers identify where additional evidence is most needed and align research with the challenges confronting their health systems.
Ismail commended WHO’s Health Systems and Life Course Department, particularly its Evidence, Data and Research for Policy and Impact team, for leading the initiative. He also acknowledged the contributions of the organisation’s Information Technology colleagues in developing the platform.
He expressed hope that WHO and its member states would adopt the tool and translate the priorities it identifies into stronger evidence, better decisions and improved health outcomes.
