Conclusions
Improvements in health in recent decades have been of great value in both high- and low-income countries. Furthermore, future improvements in health are likely to be highly valued as the value of health increases with continuing growth in income. Health research has played a major role in the advances in health that have occurred, and the great potential value of future gains in health suggests that health research continues to merit increasing investment. New tools to prospectively assess the value of research offer the promise of even greater returns from health investment, especially for more applied research that can be closely connected to measurable benefits at the population level. Because low-income countries may often particularly benefit from applied research, these techniques to assess the value of research may be especially helpful in ensuring that the value of applied research in these settings is recognized. Providing researchers and policy makers in low- and high-income countries with the analytic tools needed to better identify and advocate for valuable opportunities for health research may be an important avenue to increasing the level and effectiveness of spending for health research.
