The Promise of Science, Knowledge Mobilization, and Rapid Learning Systems for COVID-19 Recovery.

The health, economic, and social crises created by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been global in scope and inequitable in impact. The global road to recovery can be enhanced with robust, relevant, and timely scientific evidence. This commentary seeks to illustrate the power of science, scientific collaboration, and innovative research funding programs to inform pandemic recovery and inspire transformational changes for a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable future. Specifically, this commentary provides an introduction to the United Nations (UN) Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery that was published in November 2020. It introduces 5 scoping reviews that helped inform the UN Research Roadmap and that are now available open access within this series of special papers, and it provides an overview of an innovative research funding program that facilitated rapid mobilization and collaboration to produce the scoping reviews. The publication of the scoping reviews in this journal series will help complement and amplify the UN Research Roadmap by furthering knowledge mobilization efforts and informing COVID-19 recovery around the world, to ensure a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable postpandemic future.

Monitoring mental health reform in a Canadian inner city.

This ecological study investigated whether the relationship between social disadvantage and hospitalization for psychoses changed during a time of social and economic stressors in an urban setting. Hospital separation rates were compared in the census years 1991 and 1996. Rates were 66% higher in the lowest income areas compared to the richest areas; but this relationship did not change over time. Instead, rates for psychoses increased by about 15% over time. These findings may be due to an increase in the need, a change in the level of resources or in coding practices. As hospital separation data are collected systematically in many countries, they can be used to monitor the progress of mental health reform. Variations in an area may signify that resources need to be redistributed more equitably and/or at a faster pace.