Show HN: I built a tool that finds gaps in medical research
researchthegap.comI built Research the Gap, a free tool that maps medical papers on a grid using two of six research dimensions (Population, Methodology, Independent Variable, Outcome, Setting and Study Location). Green means well-studied, red means barely touched.
The idea came from a simple question: where do I find a research gap?
What do you think? And does the name make sense? Research the Gap, like Mind the Gap?
OK, but why launch it as a web page? Different people inputting the same topics are just going to be repeating each other's work. And people who are in a position to engage in new research to resolve the gaps are highly likely to already know their own fields well enough to not need this tool.
It would seem to make more sense for this to be a background process, publishing its results.
I have actually thought about this where a researcher would mark a certain pair as "work in progress" so that others can avoid the possible overlap but I didn't want to complicate things at least for now. As for "researchers already know what's missing" I feel like this could be like a bird's eye view of a certain disease or procedure, like trying to complete a painting something like r/place but for medical papers!