The Hartford Model of AIDS Practice/Research Collaboration

Abstract

Abstract Public-health researchers tend to view research as a “social good,” an activity that contributes directly and substantially to better technical understandings, expanded levels of public awareness, and general health and social improvement. In fact, there is remarkably little debate among researchers about the ultimate value of public-health research. While researchers contest the value of particular methodologies or criticize certain lines of inquiry, the basic research enterprise is not in question, nor often up for discussion. To a greater or lesser degree, investigators concerned with public-health issues also assume that this attitude is or at least should be universal, as it is easy to assemble lists of the benefits and contributions of public-health research to society. While it is recognized that some researchers are unethical or that research can, on occasion, lead to dangerous knowledge, in day-to-day practice the only real issue for public-health researchers is how to do better research, not whether to do research at all.