World Report on Knowledge for Better Health: Strengthening Health Systems

Published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2004, this 144-page report aims to focus on bridging of the "know do" gap - defined as "the gulf between what we know and what we do in practice, between scientific potential and health realization". According to WHO, the bridging of this gap is central to achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by 2015. The gap exists for each of the MDG’s and represents a fundamental and pragmatic knowledge translation challenge that must be addressed to strengthen health systems performance towards achieving the MDG’s.

"The Report will expound the message that we must turn scientific knowledge into actions, which improves people’s health, and that health improvement through knowledge applications is a critical factor in human development and alleviation of ill-health and poverty worldwide."