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Defining an Unmet Need
A well-defined unmet need describes a meaningful gap in care without assuming that a particular technology is the answer.
#Describe the problem in its setting
AHRQ's problem-solving tools include 5W2H: who, what, when, where, why, how and how much. These questions help describe several sides of a process problem rather than reducing it to a missing piece of technology. Its critical-incident method also depends on people being able to give honest accounts of problems.
State who experiences the gap and what is difficult under current practice. Distinguish an observed problem from a suspected cause. A list of possible causes is a starting point for investigation, not evidence that any one cause has been established.
Evidence: AHRQ: problem-solving tools
#Keep the need separate from the solution
WHO's digital planning overview describes investment as needs-based and aligned with health-system goals and readiness. AHRQ notes that health IT changes clinical and administrative workflows. A proposed tool therefore needs to be examined in relation to the work it is meant to support.
The absence of an app or device is not, by itself, a care-gap definition. Describe the task or outcome that current arrangements do not adequately support. The sources concern digital planning; they do not establish that every care problem needs a digital solution or that a particular technology will solve it.
Evidence: WHO (2020): digital implementation investment guide overview / AHRQ: workflow assessment for ambulatory health IT
#Check whose need is being described
NHS stakeholder-analysis guidance includes anyone interested in an improvement or affected by its changes. It specifically discusses increasing service users' involvement and influence. The updated CFIR also gives more attention to recipients and to factors that can affect equity in implementation.
Check the problem statement with people who experience the service and people who perform the work. Record disagreement and gaps in understanding rather than turning one perspective into everyone's need. This page does not claim that Mynd has conducted interviews, measured a care gap or validated a proposed intervention.
Evidence: NHS Education for Scotland: stakeholder analysis / Implementation Science (2022): updated CFIR
Source note
The sections above were checked against the linked sources. No clinical review has been performed. This is general research education, not a clinical guideline.