[Useful advice on health research data: too little attention paid to the data needs of policy makers]

The Dutch Advisory Council on Health Research recently issued a report with recommendations about securing the data supply and future availability of population-based health information in the Netherlands. Public health policy and public health-oriented research both depend on the availability of these data. The supply of these data is currently not as good as it might be, and the data that are available are not always utilised efficiently. The Council recommends that the government promotes and supports the efficient use of existing data collections, and invests in filling information gaps and in efficacious new data collections. The report is based on the perceived needs from the scientific perspective. However, no efforts were made to establish the information needs from the policy maker's perspective. This report challenges policy makers to prioritize information needs to establish a more evidence-based, or at least an empirical, health policy.