EVIPNetNews
July 2011 Issue 26 1. Special Highlight 2. Empirical studies 3. Systematic reviews 4. Editorial articles 5. Relevant publications 6. Events
News from EVIPNet Members or Activities EVIPNet Policy brief workshop on nutrition in Madagascar very soon available on WHO EVIPNet website
Next EVIPNet Events Training of trainers on Evidence Informed Policy Making in Kenya, Nairobi between 18 to 22 July 2011 SURE Annual Meeting and Policy brief writing workshop in Maputo, Mozambique between 5 to 9 September 2011
Experiences, methods and tools for research translation to policy
1 - HIGHLIGHTS Communication for childhood vaccination: invitation to an online consultation from 11-14 July The ‘Communicate to vaccinate’ (COMMVAC) project aims to build research evidence for improving communication about childhood vaccinations with parents and communities in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). From 11‐ 14 July, COMMVAC will be holding an online consultative forum. The forum will discuss views and ideas on priorities for systematic reviews of interventions to improve communication about childhood vaccinations between parents and health care providers in LMICs. We welcome contributions from stakeholders involved in policy development, design, management, implementation and evaluation of vaccination programmes across all settings. Those involved in communication, health education and community‐based programmes are also most welcome to participate. If you would like to participate, you can register now at http://www.vacfa.com/index.php?option=com_juser&task=register. Following registration you will receive further background information and instructions on how to participate in the forum. For any questions regarding the forum, please contact the forum facilitator Charles.wiysonge@uct.ac.za BMJ Editorial calls on major funding agencies to commit to 'Healthcare Information For All by 2015'
New forum HIFA-EVIPNet-Fr was launched at the 12th AHILA Congress in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the 13th October 2010 to address the information needs of policymakers, researchers and others stakeholders in Frenchspeaking Africa, in evidence informed policy making. Join HIFA-EVIPNet-Fr To join, please email your name, job title, organisation, country of residence, and brief description of professional interests to: hifa-evipnet-fr-admin@dgroups.org
London, UK, 5 July 2011 ‐ Every day, tens of thousands of people die needlessly, particularly in low and middle income countries, often for the simple reason that the parent, carer or health worker lacks the information and knowledge they need to save them. An Editorial in the British Medical Journal by Richard Smith and Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos asks why a major funding agency has not yet come forward to support Healthcare Information For All by 2015 (HIFA2015). Evidence Informed Policy Making on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Peru Mid‐June 2011 was the Executive Committee in Washington DC and during this meeting the Peruvian Minister of Health gave us a short interview where he emphasized how knowledge translation is helping the Ministry’s decision‐ making‐processes. The interview in Spanish is available in this link: http://youtu.be/f7‐pZ_X0l‐o and soon it will be available in the PAHO web and the research portal (www.paho.org/researchportal)
concluded, based on the findings of their review, that there is also insufficient evidence to conclude that the consumption of GMOs is safe and beneficial to people. The Peruvian Congress issued a 10‐year moratorium on the introduction of GMOs in Peru waiting for knowledge gaps to be addressed as to ensure that GMOs are safe and beneficial for its population. The National Institute of Health promotes the systematic use of health research evidence in Peruvian policy‐making and members of their Analysis and Generation of Evidence in Public Health team participate in the local Evidence‐Informed Policy Network – EVIPNet. New Evidence Informed Policy Brief development in Guatemala on Distribution of water In coordination with PAHO’s Sustainable Development & Environment team, the PAHO EVIPNet team will provide technical cooperation to the Health and Environment and Maternal and Child Health divisions of the Ministry of Health and discuss the development of a Policy brief on Distribution of Water to inform a deliberative dialogue, in coordination with the Water Cabinet (Gabinete de Agua AGISA, Empagua). 2 - EMPIRICAL STUDIES Reliability of a Tool for Measuring Theory of Planned Behaviour Constructs for use in Evaluating Research Use in Policymaking Boyko, J. A., Lavis, J. N., Dobbins, M., & Souza, N. M. (2011). Reliability of a Tool for Measuring Theory of Planned Behaviour Constructs for use in Evaluating Research Use in Policymaking. Health Research Policy and Systems, 9(29), 20. Although measures of knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) effectiveness based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) have been used among patients and providers, no measure has been developed for use among health system policymakers and stakeholders. A tool that measures the intention to use research evidence in policymaking could assist researchers in evaluating the effectiveness of KTE strategies that aim to support evidence‐informed health system decision‐ making. Therefore, we developed a 15‐item tool to measure four TPB constructs (intention, attitude, subjective norm and perceived control) and assessed its face validity through key informant interviews. Conceptual frameworks and empirical approaches used to assess the impact of health research: an overview of reviews Banzi, R., Moja, L., Pistotti, V., Facchini, A., & Liberati, A. (2011). Conceptual frameworks and empirical approaches used to assess the impact of health research: an overview of reviews. Health Research Policy and Systems, 9(26), 23. How to assess the impact of research is of growing interest to funders, policy makers and researchers mainly to understand the value of investments and to increase accountability. Broadly speaking the term "research impact" refers to the contribution of research activities to achieve desired societal outcomes. The aim of this overview is to identify the most common approaches to research impact assessment, categories of impact and their respective indicators.
3 - SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS
The McMaster Health Forum Health Systems Evidence provides links to graded systematic reviews that may be helpful for evidence‐informed policy‐making
4 - EDITORIAL ARTICLES Health sector innovation and partnership: Policy responses to the new economic context Saltman, R. B., & Calltorp, J. (2011). Health sector innovation and partnership: Policy responses to the new economic context. Aad de Roo: Swedish Forum for Health Policy. Health care systems in developed countries face a series of sustained structural challenges over the next decade. The demographic and technological dimensions of these systemic pressures are well documented (Comas‐Herrara and Wittenberg, 2003; Eckholm, 2010). A third structural pressure is the long‐term fundamental shift of wealth creation away from developed nations toward the emerging economies. This global economic shift has already increased fiscal challenges for health sector policymaking, and may well present the most serious of the structural challenges. This paper explores key organizational implications for health care systems that unfold from these three structural challenges. After briefly reviewing the changed global economic context and the likely consequences it holds for future funding of health care services, we summarize major organizational responses by European health systems to date taken in response to this new environment.
5 - RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS Strengthening the research to policy and practice interface: exploring strategies used by research organisations working on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS Theobald, S., Tulloch, O., & Standing, H. (2009). Strengthening the research to policy and practice interface: exploring strategies used by research organisations working on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Health Research Policy and Systems, 9(Suppl 1), S15. The papers in this special supplement focus on lesson learning on getting research into policy and practice. They highlight the range of methodologies and approaches researchers and communication specialists have used in different contexts to try to ensure research does not simply gather dust on library shelves but feeds into and is relevant to policy and practice in different contexts (for example South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Ghana, Bangladesh) and on a diversity of topic areas (Gender based violence, sexualities, orphans and vulnerable children, HIV care and treatment including male circumcision, cotrimoxazole and links with nutrition).
6 - EVENTS 3ie conference "Mind the Gap : From Evidence to Policy Impact"
The 3ie conference “Mind the Gap: From Evidence to Policy Impact” brought to centre stage the need to address this “tension between learning and doing” as Ruth Levine (Hewlett Foundation) called it in the conference opening. For researchers, there is pressure to deliver quick results and for policymakers “there is still a pronounced hunger for success stories but a tendency to choke on failure”. Many of the participants at the conference spoke of a real shift in the political discourse and demand for evidence. To ensure that good evidence influences policy, researchers need to ‘get away from their comfort zone' and actively engage with policymakers to help them answer the ‘big questions’. In Latin America, impact evaluation has become part of the democratic dialogue. For the Chilean Planning Minister Felipe Kast, this movement in Latin America is partly due to the fact that “people don’t believe in politicians anymore. Since the credibility is so low, politicians must use good evidence to convince citizens that programmes are working” (For more, view video). All presentations, photographs, videos and recordings of some of the sessions are now available on the conference site. Back to top
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Filename: RE: EVIPNetNews - Issue N 26 - July 2011 Directory: Template: C:\Documents and Settings\cuervolu\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dot Title: Subject: Author: Cuervo Amore, Dr. Luis Gabriel (WDC) Keywords: Comments: Creation Date: 7/5/2011 12:45:00 PM Change Number: 1 Last Saved On: Last Saved By: Total Editing Time: 8 Minutes Last Printed On: 7/5/2011 12:53:00 PM As of Last Complete Printing Number of Pages: 4 Number of Words: 2,049 (approx.) Number of Characters: 11,683 (approx.)