Policy options for strengthening evidence-informed health policy-making in Iran: overall SASHA project findings

Majdzadeh, Reza; Sajadi, Haniye Sadat; Yazdizadeh, Bahareh; Doshmangir, Leila; Ehsani-Chimeh, Elham; Mahdavi, Mahdi; Mehrdad, Neda; Lavis, John; Nikooee, Sima; Mohtasham, Farideh; Mohseni, Mahsa; Akbari, Paria; Asgardoon, Mohammad Hossein; Rezaei, Niloofar; Neyazi, Narges; Ghaffarifar, Saeideh; Haghdoost, Ali Akbar; Khodayari-Zarnaq, Rahim; Mosadeghrad, Ali Mohammad; Pourabbasi, Ata; Rafinejad, Javad; Toyserkanamanesh, Reza

doi:10.1186/s12961-021-00803-0

Health Research Policy and Systems

Table 2 Strategies identified to strengthen EIHP

From: Policy options for strengthening evidence-informed health policy-making in Iran: overall SASHA project findings

		Decision		Basis for decision
Strategy	Intervention	Included^a	Excluded^b	Review^c	Expert opinion^d
Strengthening the education and training system	1. Continuous needs assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of training courses related to EIHP	√		√	√
	2. Revising the content of curriculums and workshops to increase knowledge and practice of EIHP	√		√	√
	3. Reviewing the method of conducting internships and internships for students, skills development workshops for faculty members and other researchers, and holding study opportunities for faculty members in policy-making organizations	√		√	√
	4. Holding training courses on identifying, evaluating, selecting and applying evidence for health decision-makers, including staff, experts and staff managers of the Ministry of Health and partner organizations	√		√	√
	5. Holding short-term training courses in the field of thinking styles, problem-solving and principles of implementation science for health decision-makers after appointment to managerial jobs by combining practical training methods, mentoring and fellowship	√		√	√
	6. Replacing individual learning with team learning, including researchers and decision-makers as the target group	√			√
Strengthening the incentives programmes	7. Revising the current compulsory criteria and areas of academic promotion with emphasis on measuring the impact of research on health policy, systems and outcomes	√		√	√
	8. Developing appropriate reward and incentive programmes for nonacademic member researchers to persuade them to support EIHP	√			√
	9. Designing metrics to measure research impact on policies or health to evaluate the performance of research institutes and journals	√		√
	10. Revising the current policies of scientific journals to promote HPSR		√	√
	11. Revising existing funding mechanisms to support HPSR and KT initiatives	√		√
	12. Presenting the KT plan when submitting a research proposal as an obligatory prerequisite to all those receiving grants	√		√
	13. Encouraging and supporting different mechanisms for increasing interactions between policy-makers and researchers	√		√
	14. Revising some administrative processes, including managers and staff performance evaluation; selection, appointment and change in managers and reward mechanisms to add output-based criteria for EIHP efforts	√		√	√
	15. Establishing an accreditation system for health system managers		√		√
Strengthening policy support organization(s)	16. Capacity-building of research centres and institutes in the field of health policy analysis and evaluation	√			√
	17. Strengthening the multidisciplinary approach to forming research units (such as a research centre or research institute) instead of developing them in fields similar to the academic disciplines	√			√
	18. Division of work and networking between research institutes and higher education in the field of health policy at the national level	√			√
	19. Qualitative assessment of research performance (institutes, universities, centres, etc.)		√		√
	20. Strengthening the role of exchange organizations through reviewing the mission and responsibilities, designing and implementing merit selection and a meritocracy system for managers and employees, active participation of stakeholders in the composition of exchange organization governance bodies, and using existing capacities within and outside the organization of policy-making organizations to analyse and evaluate health policies	√		√	√
	21. Establishment of health policy analysis units in policy-making organizations		√		√
Strengthening the enabling processes	22. Make transparent details of the decision-making process about funding research projects	√		√	√
	23. Prepare, approve and communicate guidelines/protocols for conflict of interest	√		√	√
	24. Optimize conducting HPSR by setting research priorities and defining research questions based on the needs and active participation of all stakeholders (including the public)	√		√	√
	25. Strengthen the active participation of stakeholders (including the public) in HPSR	√		√	√
	26. Improving the quality of HPSR	√		√	√
	27. Requiring the registration of research activities in the national system and anticipating the processes to prevent parallel research activities	√			√
	28. Needs assessment of the required number of researchers active in HPSR and reviewing the method of attracting and retaining these researchers	√			√
	29. Obligation to attract research funding from policy-making organizations to solve real health problems in exchange for a share of researchers' salaries		√	√	√
	30. Preparation and implementation of evidence-aware policy-making protocol at all stages with an emphasis on transparency and accountability	√			√
	31. Using the criterion of “evidence-based” in prioritizing and allocating health resources	√		√	√
	32. Ensuring, empowering and having a transparent process of stakeholder participation (including people) in health policies		√		√
	33. Review the method of selection and appointment of managers and experts in policy-making organizations by adding the criteria of having the knowledge and skills needed for evidence-based decision-making	√			√
	34. Prepare, approve and communicate guidelines/protocols for conflict of interest management for health system decision-makers and policy-makers		√	√	√
	35. Establish a comprehensive system of monitoring and evaluation	√		√	√
	36. Clarification of information on full ordering details; the appointment of an organization/researcher producing evidence and contracts		√		√
	37. Develop and implement instructions for the process of ordering and concluding research contracts, monitoring and data exchange		√		√
	38. Modify the health information system so that the type of data collected is appropriate for the needs of policy-makers, has acceptable quality and transparency in the process of ownership, production and sharing of data, complies with confidentiality principles, and avoidance of duplicate data collection is guaranteed	√		√	√
	39. Integration of decision-making units (at the stage of proposing new structures and formulating processes) within the policy-making organization	√			√
	40. Improve the interaction of ministries and organizations regarding health sector interventions (e.g. in the High Council for Health and Food Security) to clarify responsibilities, require all organizations to provide evidence for programmes, develop a joint action plan and evaluate the performance of each outcome-based stakeholder	√			√
	41. Providing funds/grants to produce evidence in the long-term health planning of the country	√		√

^aInterventions included in the final road map.
^bInterventions proposed during the review of evidence or policy dialogue that were not included after two rounds of broad opinion polls and were excluded from the final road map.
^cInterventions listed from the review of the literature or those among practices of benchmark institutions.
^dInterventions proposed during policy dialogues.

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ISSN: 1478-4505

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