14 December 2016 - Making better choices about health and health care requires the best possible evidence. Unfortunately, many of the decisions made today in our health care system are not supported by high-quality evidence derived from randomised, controlled trials or well-designed observational studies. 

But as rich, diverse sources of digital data become widely available for research and as analytical tools continue to grow in power and sophistication, the research and health care communities now have the opportunity to quickly and efficiently generate the scientific evidence needed to support improved decision making about health and health care.

The pursuit of high-quality, data-driven evidence in no way detracts from the importance of expert opinion and qualitative information as a complementary source of knowledge to inform policy decisions or population and individual choices; in fact, it enhances it. However, we believe there is an opportunity to use qualitative methods to supplement high-quality quantitative data with a more focused approach.

Read New England Journal of Medicine Sounding Board