Metascience Solutions for the Paradox of Evidence-Based Decision Making

April 1, 2021

Spencer Hey, PhD, member of the Executive Committee of the IMPACT Ethics & Regulation Core, co-authored this article in the Value & Outcomes Spotlight magazine. The article examines the widespread agreement that better research will result from first having a comprehensive understanding of the existing evidence in hand. But because time is precious and decisions about what studies to conduct and how to conduct them may not be able to wait a year, a comprehensive, up-to-date understanding is often out of reach. This article argues that this paradox can be resolved by rethinking some of the fundamental assumptions about the goals and products of systematic evidence review.