In an environment where continence must compete with organ transplants or gene technology for what seems to be an increasingly elusive research dollar, it is not surprising that reviewers do not find the X-Factor that might just persuade them to fund one excellent (continence) proposal to the exclusion of another excellent (but more popularly themed) proposal. It was therefore rejuvenating to read the July/August 2005 Editorial on "Barriers to Funding Research in Urinary Incontinence" because it identifies issues and barriers we too have felt, and reflecting on the old adage that a problem shared is a problem halved, we took fresh heart.

At the Royal District Nursing Service, Helen Macpherson Smith Institute of Community Health, our efforts to gain funding paid off after one and a half years of persistence when funding was received to conduct a Pilot Study. We are now midway through a Pilot Study of a Randomized Controlled Trial comparing the effectiveness of a hydrogel catheter and a silver impregnated catheter to reduce catheter complications among community-dwelling clients with long-term indwelling catheters.

Many of the barriers discussed by Katherine Moore resonate with our own experiences and challenges we faced to gain this funding, including the difficulty to clarify outcome measures and indicators of a successful treatment and the hurdle of convincing funders of the value of this research in a community setting. Ultimately, funding came from a manufacturer of continence products, for whom the significance of incontinence and the understanding of the issue was the core business and who also had an established foundation.

I thank you for the Editorial. I believe it presents a challenge for researchers and reviewers alike. Researchers are invited to find ways to emphasize the impact and prevalence of incontinence while sharing with each other effective study designs and lessons from the conduct of clinical research to strengthen future projects and the likelihood of gaining funding. Reviewers are encouraged to open themselves up to the opportunity to be "inspired" by the work of continence clinicians and researchers and to envisage the benefits of this research for the lives of those affected by or living with incontinence.

Charne Flowers, BA(Hons), GDip (ApplSocStat)

Royal District Nursing Service, Helen Macpherson Smith Institute of Community Health