James Lind Alliance

[1] It was established to bring patients, carers and clinicians together, in Priority Setting Partnerships, to identify and prioritise unanswered questions or evidence uncertainties that they agree are the most important.

In 2016 the James Lind Alliance was granted the Societal Award of the Foundation Federation of Dutch Medical Scientific Societies (Federa) for their initiative to bring patients into partnerships for research priorities.

The pharmaceutical and medical technology industries and academia play essential roles in developing new treatments, but their priorities are not necessarily the same as those of patients and clinicians.

The uncertainties then go through a process of prioritisation, which culminates in a top ten list of priorities for research, shared by patients, carers and clinicians.

Lind, a Scottish naval surgeon, decided to confront this uncertainty by treating his patients within a clinical trial comparing six of the proposed remedies.