What you need to know about Research

Thyroid UK strongly believes in good quality research. This means that it has to be done correctly without bias and it must ask the questions that patients need to know the answers to.

The James Lind Alliance (JLA) is a research organisation that brings together patients, carers and clinicians in Priority Setting Partnerships (PSPs) to identify and prioritise the top 10 unanswered questions or evidence uncertainties that they agree are the most important. The JLA believes that:

• • addressing uncertainties about the effects of treatment should become accepted as a routine part of clinical practice

• • patients, carers and clinicians should work together to agree which, among those uncertainties, matter most and deserve priority attention.

There are many things that go into making a good quality research paper.  The study methods should be reported fully and there should be no bias or conflict of interest. Here is some good information on how to ensure research is of good quality:

• • What makes a high-quality clinical research paper?
    T Groves
    Oral Diseases – Vol. 16, Issue 4, Pages 313 – 315
    https://www.elsevier.com/connect/how-do-you-know-if-a-research-study-is-any-good

• • Protect us from poor-quality medical research
    Human Reproduction, Volume 33, Issue 5, May 2018, Pages 770–776
    https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/33/5/770/4956366

Unfortunately, failing to produce good quality research is not the only problem with medical research. Alltrials is an organisation that calls for all past and present clinical trials to be registered and their full methods and summary results reported.  Unfortunately, a lot of trials with negative results are not reported and this can impact on the health of patients.  Read more about Alltrials.

Thyroid UK has produced various lists of research that may enable you to learn about thyroid conditions and related disorders and how these should be treated.  You will also be able to see which questions have been answered by research and which ones haven’t.

Date updated:  02.06.21 (V1.1)
Review date:   10.06.22