Measuring the evidence gap, country by country.
A scoring framework for making a country's evidence gaps visible before fieldwork begins, designed to be re-applied by local collaborators.
Five dimensions. Twenty-five points. One score per country.
The Research Coverage Index scores the existing evidence base for midlife women's health in any APAC country. Each dimension is scored 0–5 against published criteria and designed for peer review.
What 6.5 / 25 means in practice.
Vietnam has 14M midlife women across 53 ethnic groups. Published cohorts cover <2% of that population, predominantly Kinh urban samples. Validated symptom instruments are not translated. National MHT guidelines were last revised in 2014.
Systematic literature review, RCI scoring, country brief drafting, and clinical background consultation with Vietnam contacts.
Mixed-methods fieldwork pathway. Candidate minority and Kinh-majority contexts under review, with consented photography and oral histories alongside the research protocol.
RCI applied to 3–5 additional APAC countries via the coordinator network. Methodology re-tested at scale. Comparative cross-country brief published.
Communities, not clinics.
DFV Phase 1 recruits women in their working environments — fields, markets, homes — not in tertiary care waiting rooms. Translators are trained on consent architecture, not script delivery.
Photographs accompany every cohort visit, with consent reaffirmed at each frame. Subjects review prints before any image enters the research record.
Open-science by default.
Preprints first. Peer-reviewed venues co-selected with country clinical collaborators. Co-authorship terms agreed in writing before fieldwork begins.
| Publication | Co-authors | Target venue | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vietnam Phase 0 Country Brief | Li, Yang, + | medRxiv | Drafting |
| RCI Methodology Paper | Li, Yang, + | Maturitas / BMC Women's Health | Planned · Q4 2026 |
| APAC Symptom Variance — Scoping Review | Yang, + | Frontiers in Global Women's Health | Planned · 2027 |
| Phase 1 Vietnam Cohort Paper | Vietnam clinical team, Yang, Li, + | Climacteric / Menopause | Pending Field |
What we commit to before we publish.
Each commitment is recorded in the country MoU and reviewed by the advisory board on annual cadence.
Recontact consent at every visit.
Participants re-consent at each interaction. Photography consent is separate from research consent and revocable at any time, including after publication.
Translators trained, not transcribing.
Country clinical collaborators train local translators on instrument adaptation, cultural idiom, and clinical vocabulary — before any cohort visit. Translation notes are part of the dataset.
Sovereignty stays with country.
Primary data resides in-country with the coordinator's institution. DFV holds working copies under data-sharing agreement. Indigenous data sovereignty principles apply where relevant.
The whole process is consented.
Consent covers the full documentation workflow, including portraits and behind-the-scenes material where approved. Devices, operators, permitted uses, and withdrawal terms are documented before any image, audio, or video is captured.
Roles before names.
DFV separates methodology, country clinical input, ethics review, and public translation. Named collaborators appear publicly only after role scope and listing consent are clear.
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