The UK Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatment (UK DUETs) has become a Specialist Library within the National Library for Health.UK DUETs is being developed primarily to help those prioritising research in the UK to take account of the information needs of patients, carers and clinicians, as promoted by the James Lind Alliance. The database was established to publish uncertainties about the effects of treatments that cannot currently be answered by referring to reliable, up-to-date systematic reviews of existing research evidence.
Systematic reviews are based on worldwide searches for reliable, relevant evidence, analysed using methods to reduce biases and the play of chance. More detailed information about systematic reviews and fair tests of the effects of medical treatments is available in The James Lind Library.DUETs draws on three main sources to identify uncertainties about the effects of treatments:
- patients', carers' and clinicians' questions about the effects of treatments
- research recommendations in reports of systematic reviews and clinical guidelines
- ongoing research, both systematic reviews in preparation and new 'primary' studies
There are many important uncertainties about the effects of treatments. To help ensure that treatments are likely to do more good than harm, these gaps in knowledge must be identified and those deemed sufficiently important must be addressed in research, either by systematic assessment of what can be known from existing evidence, or by extending the evidence base. Research on the effects of treatments too often fails to address questions that matter to patients, and to the clinicians to whom they turn for help. For this reason, UK DUETs identifies and publishes unanswered questions about the effects of treatments which have been asked by patients and clinicians, while also noting therapeutic uncertainties identified through systematic reviews, clinical guidelines, and other formal mechanisms.
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