Articles

Uncovering the mechanisms of research capacity development in health and social care: a realist synthesis

Research capacity development (RCD) is considered fundamental to closing the evidence–practice gap, thereby contributing to health, wealth and knowledge for practice. Numerous frameworks and models have been p...

Authors: Jo Cooke, Paolo Gardois and Andrew Booth

A longitudinal review of national HIV policy and progress made in health facility implementation in Eastern Zimbabwe

In recent years, WHO has made major changes to its guidance on the provision of HIV care and treatment services. We conducted a longitudinal study from 2013 to 2015 to establish how these changes have been tra...

Authors: Malebogo Tlhajoane, Tidings Masoka, Edith Mpandaguta, Rebecca Rhead, Kathryn Church, Alison Wringe, Noah Kadzura, Nimalan Arinaminpathy, Constance Nyamukapa, Nadine Schur, Owen Mugurungi, Morten Skovdal, Jeffrey W. Eaton and Simon Gregson

Introducing responsible innovation in health: a policy-oriented framework

The scholarship on responsible research and innovation (RRI) aims to align the processes and outcomes of innovation with societal values by involving a broad range of stakeholders from a very early stage. Thou...

Authors: Hudson Pacifico Silva, Pascale Lehoux, Fiona Alice Miller and Jean-Louis Denis

Correction to: Impact assessment of Iran’s health technology assessment programme

It has been highlighted that the original article [1] contains a typesetting mistake in affiliation 2.

Authors: Bahareh Yazdizadeh, Farideh Mohtasham and Ashraf Velayati

Assessing the applicability of public health intervention evaluations from one setting to another: a methodological study of the usability and usefulness of assessment tools and frameworks

Public health interventions can be complicated, complex and context dependent, making the assessment of applicability challenging. Nevertheless, for them to be of use beyond the original study setting, they ne...

Authors: Helen Elizabeth Denise Burchett, Laurence Blanchard, Dylan Kneale and James Thomas

Public involvement and health research system governance: a qualitative study

Interest in public involvement in health research projects has led to increased attention on the coordination of public involvement through research organisations, networks and whole systems. We draw on previo...

Authors: Fiona Alice Miller, Sarah J. Patton, Mark Dobrow, Deborah A. Marshall and Whitney Berta

A systematic review on academic research productivity of postgraduate students in low- and middle-income countries

While several individual studies addressing research productivity of post-graduate students are available, a synthesis of effective strategies to increase productivity and the determinants of productivity in l...

Authors: E. A. Obuku, J. N. Lavis, A. Kinengyere, R. Ssenono, M. Ocan, D. K. Mafigiri, F. Ssengooba, C. Karamagi and N. K. Sewankambo

A systematic review of frameworks for the interrelationships of mental health evidence and policy in low- and middle-income countries

The interrelationships between research evidence and policy-making are complex. Different theoretical frameworks exist to explain general evidence–policy interactions. One largely unexplored element of these i...

Authors: Nicole Votruba, Alexandra Ziemann, Jonathan Grant and Graham Thornicroft

Health policy and systems research: the future of the field

Health policy and systems research (HPSR) has changed considerably over the last 20 years, but its main purpose remains to inform and influence health policies and systems. Whereas goals that underpin health s...

Authors: David H. Peters

The contribution of Cyprus to non-communicable diseases and biomedical research from 2002 to 2013: implications for evidence-based health policy

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading causes of disease burden and mortality at the European level and in Cyprus. This research was conducted to map the research activities of Cypriot institutions i...

Authors: Elena Pallari, Grant Lewison, Chryso Th. Pallari, George Samoutis, Mursheda Begum and Richard Sullivan

The reporting of funding in health policy and systems research: a cross-sectional study

Major research-reporting statements, such as PRISMA and CONSORT, require authors to provide information about funding. The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the reporting of funding in health policy ...

Authors: Assem M. Khamis, Lama Bou-Karroum, Maram B. Hakoum, Mounir Al-Gibbawi, Joseph R. Habib, Fadi El-Jardali and Elie A. Akl

The discordance between evidence and health policy in the United States: the science of translational research and the critical role of diverse stakeholders

There is often a discordance between health research evidence and public health policies implemented by the United States federal government. In the process of developing health policy, discordance can arise t...

Authors: Mohsen Malekinejad, Hacsi Horvath, Harry Snyder and Claire D. Brindis

Advancing the science behind human resources for health: highlights from the Health Policy and Systems Research Reader on Human Resources for Health

Health workers are central to people-centred health systems, resilient economies and sustainable development. Given the rising importance of the health workforce, changing human resource for health (HRH) polic...

Authors: A.S. George, J. Campbell and A. Ghaffar

Are our ‘UHC systems’ learning systems? Piloting an assessment tool and process in six African countries

If there is one universal recommendation to countries wanting to make progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), it is to develop the learning capacities that will enable them to ‘find their own way’ – ...

Authors: E. Akhnif, J. A. Kiendrebeogo, A. Idrissi Azouzzi, Z. Adam, C. P. Makoutode, S. Mayaka Manitu, Z. Njoumemi, A. Gamble Kelley and B. Meessen

Public involvement in health research systems: a governance framework

Growing interest in public involvement in health research has led to organisational and policy change. Additionally, an emerging body of policy-oriented scholarship has begun to identify the organisational and...

Authors: Fiona Alice Miller, Sarah J. Patton, Mark Dobrow and Whitney Berta

Towards an explanatory framework for national level maternal health policy agenda item evolution in Ghana: an embedded case study

Understanding decision-making processes that influence the fate of items on the health policy agenda at national level in low- and middle-income countries is important because of the implications for programme...

Authors: Augustina Koduah, Irene Akua Agyepong and Han van Dijk

Standardising costs or standardising care? Qualitative evaluation of the implementation and impact of a hospital funding reform in Ontario, Canada

Since 2011, the Government of Ontario, Canada, has phased in hospital funding reforms hoping to encourage standardised, evidence-based clinical care processes to both improve patient outcomes and reduce system...

Authors: Karen S. Palmer, Adalsteinn D. Brown, Jenna M. Evans, Husayn Marani, Kirstie K. Russell, Danielle Martin and Noah M. Ivers

A review of the process of knowledge transfer and use of evidence in reproductive and child health in Ghana

The paper carries out a situational analysis to examine the production, dissemination and utilisation of reproductive and child health-related evidence to inform policy formulation in Ghana’s health sector.

Authors: Gordon Abekah-Nkrumah, Sombié Issiaka, Lokossou Virgil and Johnson Ermel

Use of post-graduate students' research in evidence informed health policies: a case study of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Uganda

World over, stakeholders are increasingly concerned about making research useful in public policy-making. However, there are hardly any reports linking production of research by students at institutions of hig...

Authors: E. A. Obuku, N. K. Sewankambo, D. K. Mafigiri, F. Sengooba, C. Karamagi and J. N. Lavis

Integrated knowledge translation in population health intervention research: a case study of implementation and outcomes from a school-based project

Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) is encouraged in population health intervention research (PHIR) to ensure the co-production of policy-relevant research, yet there is little published literature that rep...

Authors: Jessie-Lee D. McIsaac, Tarra L. Penney, Kate E. Storey, Lori Sigfridson, Jane Cunningham, Stefan Kuhle and Sara F. L. Kirk

Developing the latest framework to measure and incentivise pharmaceutical industry contributions to health research and development

Major pharmaceutical companies contribute important expertise to health research and development (R&D), particularly in their ability to develop and bring pharmaceuticals to market. The Access to Medicine Inde...

Authors: Clarke B. Cole, Stine Trolle and Danny J. Edwards

Implementing a protocol for a research impact assessment of the Centre for Research Excellence in Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery

There is growing recognition that the wider benefits of research (economic, social and health impacts) should be assessed and valued alongside traditional research performance metrics such as peer-reviewed pap...

Authors: Shanthi Ramanathan, Penny Reeves, Simon Deeming, Julie Bernhardt, Michael Nilsson, Dominique A. Cadilhac, Frederick Rohan Walker, Leeanne Carey, Sandy Middleton, Elizabeth Lynch and Andrew Searles

The Palestinian health research system: who orchestrates the system, how and based on what? A qualitative assessment

In 2011, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region committee launched a strategy for scaling up research in the region to address the countries’ health needs through formulating and analysing the National Health Re...

Authors: Mohammed AlKhaldi, Abdulsalam Alkaiyat, Yehia Abed, Constanze Pfeiffer, Rana Halaseh, Ruba Salah, Manar Idries, Said Abueida, Ibrahim Idries, Ibrahim Jeries, Hamza Meghari, Ali Shaar, Marcel Tanner and Saleem Haj-Yahia

A novel approach to sharing all available information from funded health research: the NIHR Journals Library

Relevant information on health research must be made publicly available in an accurate, timely and accessible manner if evidence is to inform practice and benefit patient care. Failure to publish research info...

Authors: David Wright, Elaine Williams, Colin Bryce, Andrée le May, Ken Stein, Ruairidh Milne and Tom Walley

National stakeholders’ perceptions of the processes that inform the development of national clinical practice guidelines for primary healthcare in South Africa

There is increased international focus on improving the rigour of clinical practice guideline (CPG) development practices. However, few empirical studies on CPG development have been conducted in low- and midd...

Authors: Tamara Kredo, Sara Cooper, Amber Abrams, Karen Daniels, Jimmy Volmink and Salla Atkins

Assessing policy-makers’, academics’ and experts’ satisfaction with the performance of the Palestinian health research system: a qualitative study

There is a growing demand within international health agencies to ensure health research systems (HRSs) are strengthened and well-functioning to support healthcare systems (HCSs). Understanding HRS performance...

Authors: Mohammed AlKhaldi, Yehia Abed, Constanze Pfeiffer, Saleem Haj-Yahia, Abdulsalam Alkaiyat and Marcel Tanner

Factors affecting engagement between academic faculty and decision-makers: learnings and priorities for a school of public health

Schools of public health (SPHs) are increasingly being recognised as important contributors of human, social and intellectual capital relevant to health policy and decision-making. Few studies within the imple...

Authors: Nasreen S. Jessani, Sameer M. Siddiqi, Carly Babcock, Melissa Davey-Rothwell, Shirley Ho and David R. Holtgrave

Embedded health service development and research: why and how to do it (a ten-stage guide)

In a world of changing disease burdens, poor quality care and constrained health budgets, finding effective approaches to developing and implementing evidence-based health services is crucial. Much has been pu...

Authors: John Walley, Mohammad Amir Khan, Sophie Witter, Rumana Haque, James Newell and Xiaolin Wei

How is the use of research evidence in health policy perceived? A comparison between the reporting of researchers and policy-makers

The use of health policy and systems research (HPSR) to inform health policy-making is an international challenge. Incorporating HPSR into decision-making primarily involves two groups, namely researchers (kno...

Authors: Moriah E. Ellen, John N. Lavis, Einav Horowitz and Robin Berglas

Development of rapid guidelines: 1. Systematic survey of current practices and methods

Guidelines in the healthcare field generally should contain evidence-based recommendations to inform healthcare decisions. Guidelines often require 2 years or more to develop, but certain circumstances necessi...

Authors: Sergio C. Kowalski, Rebecca L. Morgan, Maicon Falavigna, Iván D. Florez, Itziar Etxeandia-Ikobaltzeta, Wojtek Wiercioch, Yuan Zhang, Faria Sakhia, Liudmila Ivanova, Nancy Santesso and Holger J. Schünemann

Development of rapid guidelines: 3. GIN-McMaster Guideline Development Checklist extension for rapid recommendations

Practice guidelines require a substantial investment of resources and time, often taking between 1 and 3 years from conceptualisation to publication. However, urgent situations require the development of recom...

Authors: Rebecca L. Morgan, Ivan Florez, Maicon Falavigna, Sergio Kowalski, Elie A. Akl, Kristina A. Thayer, Andrew Rooney and Holger J. Schünemann

Development of rapid guidelines: 2. A qualitative study with WHO guideline developers

Situations such as public health emergencies and outbreaks necessitate the development and publication of high-quality recommendations within a condensed timeframe. For example, WHO has produced examples of an...

Authors: Ivan D. Florez, Rebecca L. Morgan, Maicon Falavigna, Sérgio C. Kowalski, Yuan Zhang, Itziar Etxeandia-Ikobaltzeta, Nancy Santesso, Wojtek Wiercioch and Holger J. Schünemann

How to engage stakeholders in research: design principles to support improvement

Closing the gap between research production and research use is a key challenge for the health research system. Stakeholder engagement is being increasingly promoted across the board by health research funding...

Authors: Annette Boaz, Stephen Hanney, Robert Borst, Alison O’Shea and Maarten Kok

Facilitating evidence uptake: development and user testing of a systematic review summary format to inform public health decision-making in German-speaking countries

Systematic reviews are an important source of evidence for public health decision-making, but length and technical jargon tend to hinder their use. In non-English speaking countries, inaccessibility of informa...

Authors: Laura K. Busert, Margot Mütsch, Christina Kien, Aline Flatz, Ursula Griebler, Manfred Wildner, Jan M. Stratil and Eva A. Rehfuess

Gendered health systems: evidence from low- and middle-income countries

Gender is often neglected in health systems, yet health systems are not gender neutral. Within health systems research, gender analysis seeks to understand how gender power relations create inequities in acces...

Authors: Rosemary Morgan, Richard Mangwi Ayiasi, Debjani Barman, Stephen Buzuzi, Charles Ssemugabo, Nkoli Ezumah, Asha S. George, Kate Hawkins, Xiaoning Hao, Rebecca King, Tianyang Liu, Sassy Molyneux, Kelly W. Muraya, David Musoke, Tumaini Nyamhanga, Bandeth Ros…

Priority-setting in health research in Iran: a qualitative study on barriers and facilitators

Priority-setting is a complicated and time-consuming process; however, if appropriately conducted, it could efficiently divert resources to the most important studies. A considerable body of evidence indicates...

Authors: Abbas Badakhshan, Mohammad Arab, Arash Rashidian, Neda Mehrdad and Kazem Zendehdel

Does citation matter? Research citation in policy documents as an indicator of research impact – an Australian obesity policy case-study

Citation of research in policy documents has been suggested as an indicator of the potential longer-term impacts of research. We investigated the use of research citations in childhood obesity prevention polic...

Authors: Robyn Newson, Lucie Rychetnik, Lesley King, Andrew Milat and Adrian Bauman

Rapid guidelines – timely and important guidance needed for setting standards and best practices

Authors: Tikki Pang and Gianna Gayle Herrera Amul

Looking both ways: a review of methods for assessing research impacts on policy and the policy utilisation of research

Measuring the policy and practice impacts of research is becoming increasingly important. Policy impacts can be measured from two directions – tracing forward from research and tracing backwards from a policy ...

Authors: Robyn Newson, Lesley King, Lucie Rychetnik, Andrew Milat and Adrian Bauman

Priority-setting in public health research funding organisations: an exploratory qualitative study among five high-profile funders

Priority-driven funding streams for population and public health are an important part of the health research landscape and contribute to orienting future scholarship in the field. While research priorities ar...

Authors: Yuri Cartier, Maria I. Creatore, Steven J. Hoffman and Louise Potvin

A call for action to establish a research agenda for building a future health workforce in Europe

The importance of a sustainable health workforce is increasingly recognised. However, the building of a future health workforce that is responsive to diverse population needs and demographic and economic chang...

Authors: Ellen Kuhlmann, Ronald Batenburg, Matthias Wismar, Gilles Dussault, Claudia B. Maier, Irene A. Glinos, Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Christine Bond, Viola Burau, Tiago Correia, Peter P. Groenewegen, Johan Hansen, David J. Hunter, Usman Khan, Hans H. Kluge, Marieke Kroezen…

Validity and usability testing of a health systems guidance appraisal tool, the AGREE-HS

Health systems guidance (HSG) provides recommendations to address health systems challenges. No tools exist to inform HSG developers and users about the components of high quality HSG and to differentiate betw...

Authors: Melissa C. Brouwers, Denis Ako-Arrey, Karen Spithoff, Marija Vukmirovic, Ivan D. Florez, John N. Lavis, Francoise Cluzeau, Govin Permanand, Xavier Bosch-Capblanch and Yaolong Chen

Qualitative assessment of opportunities and challenges to improve evidence-informed health policy-making in Hungary – an EVIPNet situation analysis pilot

In evidence-informed policy-making (EIP), major knowledge gaps remain in understanding the context and possibilities for institutionalisation of knowledge translation. In 2014, the WHO Evidence-informed Policy...

Authors: Péter Mihalicza, Mark Leys, Ilona Borbás, Szabolcs Szigeti, Olivia Biermann and Tanja Kuchenmüller

Understanding the concept and importance of the health research system in Palestine: a qualitative study

The importance of a health research system (HRS), namely an instrument for developing and enabling health systems, is increasing, particularly in developing countries. Assessing the perceptions of system perfo...

Authors: Mohammed AlKhaldi, Yehia Abed, Constanze Pfeiffer, Saleem Haj-Yahia, Abdulsalam Alkaiyat and Marcel Tanner

Addressing overuse of health services in health systems: a critical interpretive synthesis

Health systems are increasingly focusing on the issue of ‘overuse’ of health services and how to address it. We developed a framework focused on (1) the rationale and context for health systems prioritising ad...

Authors: Moriah E. Ellen, Michael G. Wilson, Marcela Vélez, Ruth Shach, John N. Lavis, Jeremy M. Grimshaw and Kaelan A. Moat

Development of measurable indicators to enhance public health evidence-informed policy-making

Ensuring health policies are informed by evidence still remains a challenge despite efforts devoted to this aim. Several tools and approaches aimed at fostering evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) have been...

Authors: Valentina Tudisca, Adriana Valente, Tommaso Castellani, Timo Stahl, Petru Sandu, Diana Dulf, Hilde Spitters, Ien Van de Goor, Christina Radl-Karimi, Mohamed Ahmed Syed, Natasa Loncarevic, Cathrine Juel Lau, Susan Roelofs, Maja Bertram, Nancy Edwards and Arja R. Aro

Collaborative and partnership research for improvement of health and social services: researcher’s experiences from 20 projects

Getting research into policy and practice in healthcare is a recognised, world-wide concern. As an attempt to bridge the gap between research and practice, research funders are requesting more interdisciplinar...

Authors: M. E. Nyström, J. Karltun, C. Keller and B. Andersson Gäre

The GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) framework for health system and public health decisions

To describe a framework for people making and using evidence-informed health system and public health recommendations and decisions.

Authors: Jenny Moberg, Andrew D. Oxman, Sarah Rosenbaum, Holger J. Schünemann, Gordon Guyatt, Signe Flottorp, Claire Glenton, Simon Lewin, Angela Morelli, Gabriel Rada and Pablo Alonso-Coello

Translating research into action: an international study of the role of research funders

It is widely accepted that research can lead to improved health outcomes. However, translating research into meaningful impacts in peoples’ lives requires actions that stretch well beyond those traditionally a...

Authors: Robert K. D. McLean, Ian D. Graham, Jacqueline M. Tetroe and Jimmy A. Volmink

The evolution of the field of Health Policy and Systems Research and outstanding challenges

We provide a historical analysis of the evolution of the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR) since 1996. In the mid-1990s, three main challenges affected HPSR, namely (1) fragmentation and lack ...

Authors: Sara Bennett, Julio Frenk and Anne Mills