During a successful health or medical research project, especially a clinical trial, the standard of care can increase out of sight compared to the standard of care before the project started.
But, when the research funding runs out, what happens is that the standard of care crashes back down to what it was before the project started – because there is almost always no funding to keep going what was instituted during the trial.
It is like playing snakes and ladders.
During the research project, you climb ladders to the point where you might be above the top of the board. You might achieve something that no one other than you, the researchers, thought was possible. But then the research funding runs out and you, and the standard of care, slide back down a very long snake to square zero.
This implementation ‘valley of death’ for health and medical research can last for years until what was done in the research phase is funded as standard of care. One example is the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program; it took 16 years from the end of the pilot study for it to be fully implemented. Of course, sometimes the research might never be funded into practice.
I’ve talked to many colleagues in WA and around the country, and they all have a story of successful research not being implemented. This includes colleagues working with Indigenous communities whose research has been shown to improve the health of the community members, but then the funding runs out and care reverts to what it was.
This is as frustrating for the communities as it is for the researchers.
