Articles

Evidence map of knowledge translation strategies, outcomes, facilitators and barriers in African health systems

The need for research-based knowledge to inform health policy formulation and implementation is a chronic global concern impacting health systems functioning and impeding the provision of quality healthcare fo...

Authors: Amanda Edwards, Virginia Zweigenthal and Jill Olivier

Kenya’s Health in All Policies strategy: a policy analysis using Kingdon’s multiple streams

Health in All Policies (HiAP) is an intersectoral approach that facilitates decision-making among policy-makers to maximise positive health impacts of other public policies. Kenya, as a member of WHO, has comm...

Authors: Joy Mauti, Lara Gautier, Jan-Walter De Neve, Claudia Beiersmann, Jale Tosun and Albrecht Jahn

Increasing the capacity of policy agencies to use research findings: a stepped-wedge trial

This paper describes the trial of a novel intervention, Supporting Policy In health with evidence from Research: an Intervention Trial (SPIRIT). It examines (1) the feasibility of delivering this kind of progr...

Authors: Anna Williamson, Daniel Barker, Sally Green, Catherine D’Este, Huw T. O. Davies, Louisa Jorm, Anthony Shakeshaft, Sian Rudge and Sally Redman

Understanding political priority development for public health issues in Turkey: lessons from tobacco control and road safety

Tobacco use and road traffic injuries are major public health problems in Turkey. During the last decade, the former issue received political priority in the country, while the latter did not despite the immen...

Authors: Connie Hoe, Daniela C. Rodriguez, Yeşim Üzümcüoğlu and Adnan A. Hyder

Lessons learned from Evidence-Informed Decision-Making in Nutrition & Health (EVIDENT) in Africa: a project evaluation

Evidence-informed Decision-making in Nutrition and Health (EVIDENT) is an international partnership that seeks to identify information needs in nutrition and health in Africa and build local capacity in knowle...

Authors: Pankti Motani, Anais Van de Walle, Richmond Aryeetey and Roosmarijn Verstraeten

Understanding the implementation of Direct Health Facility Financing and its effect on health system performance in Tanzania: a non-controlled before and after mixed method study protocol

Globally, good health system performance has resulted from continuous reform, including adaptation of Decentralisation by Devolution policies, for example, the Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF). Generall...

Authors: Ntuli A. Kapologwe, Albino Kalolo, Stephen M. Kibusi, Zainab Chaula, Anna Nswilla, Thomas Teuscher, Kyaw Aung and Josephine Borghi

New indicators and indexes for benchmarking university–industry–government innovation in medical and life science clusters: results from the European FP7 Regions of Knowledge HealthTIES project

While the European Union is striving to become the ‘Innovation Union’, there remains a lack of quantifiable indicators to compare and benchmark regional innovation clusters. To address this issue, a HealthTIES...

Authors: Laurel D. Edmunds, Silvia Gluderer, Pavel V. Ovseiko, Roel Kamerling, Jacqueline Ton, Laura Vis, Mario Jenni, Gregory Tutton, Helen Lawton-Smith, Márta Völgyiné Nadabán, Máté Rab, Jon Rees, John Anson, Alexander D. Rushforth, Maxine Allen, Alastair M. Buchan…

What, why and how do health systems learn from one another? Insights from eight low- and middle-income country case studies

All health systems struggle to meet health needs within constrained resources. This is especially true for low-income countries. It is critical that they can learn from wider contexts in order to improve their...

Authors: Sophie Witter, Ian Anderson, Peter Annear, Abiodun Awosusi, Nitin N. Bhandari, Nouria Brikci, Blandine Binachon, Tata Chanturidze, Katherine Gilbert, Charity Jensen, Tomas Lievens, Barbara McPake, Snehashish Raichowdhury and Alex Jones

Sustainability of public health interventions: where are the gaps?

The current scholarly focus on implementation science is meant to ensure that public health interventions are effectively embedded in their settings. Part of this conversation includes understanding how to sup...

Authors: David Roger Walugembe, Shannon Sibbald, Marlene Janzen Le Ber and Anita Kothari

Contemporary issues in north–south health research partnerships: perspectives of health research stakeholders in Zambia

The late 1990s and early 2000s have seen a growth in north–south health research partnerships resulting from scientific developments such as those in genetic studies and development of statistical techniques a...

Authors: Tulani Francis L. Matenga, Joseph Mumba Zulu, J. Hope Corbin and Oliver Mweemba

Novel methods of qualitative analysis for health policy research

Currently, thanks to the growing number of public database resources, most evidence on planning and management, healthcare institutions, policies and practices is becoming available to everyone. However, one o...

Authors: Mireya Martínez-García, Maite Vallejo, Enrique Hernández-Lemus and Jorge Alberto Álvarez-Díaz

Barriers and opportunities in the translation of mobile phone and social media interventions between research and health promotion practice in Australia: a qualitative study of expert perspectives

Newer technologies, such as smartphones and social networking sites, offer new opportunities for health promotion interventions. There is evidence to show that these technologies can be effectively and accepta...

Authors: Cassandra J. C. Wright, Joanna Schwarzman, Paul M. Dietze, Belinda Crockett and Megan S. C. Lim

Optimising decentralisation for the health sector by exploring the synergy of decision space, capacity and accountability: insights from the Philippines

Several studies on decentralisation have used the ‘decision space’ approach to assess the breadth of space made available to decision-makers at lower levels of the health system. However, in order to better un...

Authors: Harvy Joy Liwanag and Kaspar Wyss

The challenges of implementation of clinical governance in Iran: a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

Policy- and decision-makers seek to improve the quality of care in the health sector and therefore aim to improve quality through appropriate policies. Higher quality of care will satisfy service providers and...

Authors: Masoud Behzadifar, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Morteza Arab-Zozani, Ahad Bakhtiari, Meysam Behzadifar, Tina Beyranvand, Negar Yousefzadeh, Samad Azari, Haniye Sadat Sajadi, Mandana Saki, Maryam Saran and Hasan Abolghasem Gorji

The determinants of vaccination in a semi-rural area of Vientiane City, Lao People’s Democratic Republic: a qualitative study

Immunisation is a cost-effective and highly efficacious public health intervention, saving over 20 million lives in the last two decades due to decreases in childhood bacterial infections. In the Lao People’s ...

Authors: Vanphanom Sychareun, Lucy Rowlands, Phoutsomphong Vilay, Jo Durham and Alison Morgan

Integrating implementation and user-centred design strategies to enhance the impact of health services: protocol from a concept mapping study

Innovative approaches are needed to maximise the uptake and sustainment of evidence-based practices in a variety of health service contexts. This protocol describes a study that will seek to characterise the p...

Authors: Alex R. Dopp, Kathryn E. Parisi, Sean A. Munson and Aaron R. Lyon

The value of a causal loop diagram in exploring the complex interplay of factors that influence health promotion in a multisectoral health system in Australia

Despite calls for the application of complex systems science in empirical studies of health promotion, there are very few examples. The aim of this paper was to use a complex systems approach to examine the ke...

Authors: Lori Baugh Littlejohns, Fran Baum, Angela Lawless and Toby Freeman

Getting smarter with data: understanding tensions in the use of data in assurance and improvement-oriented performance management systems to improve their implementation

A better understanding of the conditions under which performance indicators can be used to improve accountability for outcomes and promote quality improvement could help policy-makers develop more effective pe...

Authors: Karen Gardner, Sue Olney and Helen Dickinson

Convergence model for effectual prevention and control of zoonotic diseases: a health system study on ‘One Health’ approach in Ahmedabad, India

The complexity and increasing burden of zoonotic diseases create challenges for the health systems of developing nations. Public health systems must therefore be prepared to face existing and future disease th...

Authors: Sandul Yasobant, Walter Bruchhausen, Deepak Saxena and Timo Falkenberg

Opportunities for linking research to policy: lessons learned from implementation research in sexual and reproductive health within the ANSER network

The uptake of findings from sexual and reproductive health and rights research into policy-making remains a complex and non-linear process. Different models of research utilisation and guidelines to maximise t...

Authors: Emilomo Ogbe, Dirk Van Braeckel, Marleen Temmerman, Elin C. Larsson, Ines Keygnaert, Wilson De los Reyes Aragón, Feng Cheng, Gunta Lazdane, Diane Cooper, Simukai Shamu, Peter Gichangi, Sónia Dias, Hazel Barrett, Anne Nobels, Kaiyan Pei, Anna Galle…

Getting evidence to travel inside public systems: what organisational brokering capacities exist for evidence-based policy?

Implementing research findings into healthcare policy is an enduring challenge made even more difficult when policies must be developed and implemented with the help and support of multiple ideas, agendas and ...

Authors: Pernelle Smits, Jean-Louis Denis, Johanne Préval, Evert Lindquist and Miguel Aguirre

How can the impact of national recommendations for physical activity be increased? Experiences from Germany

Clearly stated national recommendations for physical activity (PA) are available in many nations. Yet, their impact on national level policy-making might be considered modest at best. This paper analyses the a...

Authors: Alfred Rütten, Karim Abu-Omar, Sven Messing, Mayra Weege, Klaus Pfeifer, Wolfgang Geidl and Verena Hartung

Deconstructing knowledge brokering for commissioned rapid reviews: an observational study

Knowledge brokers are increasingly used by policy agencies, yet little is known about how they engage with policy-makers and facilitate discussions with them about their research needs. This study examines kno...

Authors: G. Moore, S. Redman, P. Butow and A. Haynes

Mental health research priorities in Australia: a consumer and carer agenda

The perspectives of mental health consumers and carers are increasingly recognised as important to the development and conduct of research. However, research directions are still most commonly developed withou...

Authors: Michelle A. Banfield, Alyssa R. Morse, Amelia Gulliver and Kathleen M. Griffiths

Embracing complexity and uncertainty to create impact: exploring the processes and transformative potential of co-produced research through development of a social impact model

The potential use, influence and impact of health research is seldom fully realised. This stubborn problem has caused burgeoning global interest in research aiming to address the implementation ‘gap’ and facto...

Authors: Kate Beckett, Michelle Farr, Anita Kothari, Lesley Wye and Andrée le May

Application of the i-PARIHS framework for enhancing understanding of interactive dissemination to achieve wide-scale improvement in Indigenous primary healthcare

Participatory research approaches improve the use of evidence in policy, programmes and practice. Few studies have addressed ways to scale up participatory research for wider system improvement or the intensit...

Authors: Alison Laycock, Gillian Harvey, Nikki Percival, Frances Cunningham, Jodie Bailie, Veronica Matthews, Kerry Copley, Louise Patel and Ross Bailie

An analysis of research priority-setting at the World Health Organization – how mapping to a standard template allows for comparison between research priority-setting approaches

A review of research priorities completed by WHO technical units was undertaken. Results of the mapping were recorded in a database that was used to generate analysis and compare research priorities and the di...

Authors: R. F. Terry, E. Charles, B. Purdy and A. Sanford

Budgeting for a billion: applying health technology assessment (HTA) for universal health coverage in India

India recently launched the largest universal health coverage scheme in the world to address the gaps in providing healthcare to its population. Health technology assessment (HTA) has been recognised as a tool...

Authors: Saudamini Vishwanath Dabak, Songyot Pilasant, Abha Mehndiratta, Laura Emily Downey, Francoise Cluzeau, Kalipso Chalkidou, Alia Cynthia Gonzales Luz, Sitaporn Youngkong and Yot Teerawattananon

Healthy bi-regional connection: The EU-LAC Health initiative has promoted equitable and collaborative health research and innovation

The European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean regions have enjoyed privileged relations since the first bi-regional Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1999, an...

Authors: Teresa Corral, Mónica de Román, Antonio J. Gómez-Núñez, Bruno Mourenza, Cristiane Quental, Stephanie Splett-Rudolf and Rafael de Andrés

A deliberative dialogue as a knowledge translation strategy on road traffic injuries in Burkina Faso: a mixed-method evaluation

Deliberative dialogues are increasingly being used, particularly on the African continent. They are a promising interactive knowledge translation strategy that brings together and leverages the knowledge of di...

Authors: Esther Mc Sween-Cadieux, Christian Dagenais and Valéry Ridde

Systematic reviews for policy-making – critical reflections are needed

Authors: Kirsti Malterud, Anne Karen Bjelland and Kari Tove Elvbakken

Subjective judgements – no more, no less? A response to Malterud, Bjelland and Elvbakken

In 2016, three researchers published a report where they concluded that systematic reviews from my institution, the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services, are of little use for health policy decis...

Authors: Atle Fretheim

An integrative review of potential enablers and barriers to accessing mental health services in Ghana

The importance of accessible mental health treatment is a global concern, particularly when one in five people will experience a mental health problem in their lifespan. This is no less important in Ghana; how...

Authors: Eric Badu, Anthony Paul O’Brien and Rebecca Mitchell

Knowledge mobilisation for chronic disease prevention: the case of the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre

Cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary partnership research is considered one of the most effective means of facilitating research-informed policy and practice, particularly for addressing complex problems such as ...

Authors: Sonia Wutzke, Samantha Rowbotham, Abby Haynes, Penelope Hawe, Paul Kelly, Sally Redman, Seanna Davidson, Jackie Stephenson, Marge Overs and Andrew Wilson

Decisions in health technology assessment: should we speak with one voice?

Decisions regarding the regulation of individual medicines differ from country to country. In the case of Relenza, Mulinari and Davis (Health Res Policy Syst 15:93, 2017) have suggested that these inconsistencies...

Authors: Tracy Merlin

The Swedish Medical Products Agency’s rules of procedure

Authors: Catarina Andersson Forsman

Regulatory scientists’ work has important ramifications for public health and should be open to public scrutiny

The Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) objects to the fact that we occasionally refer to one of its senior ex-employees by name. However, names of individual MPA assessors, Food and Drug Administration (FDA...

Authors: Shai Mulinari and Courtney Davis

Evaluating the impact of a network of research partnerships: a longitudinal multiple case study protocol

Conducting and/or disseminating research together with community stakeholders (e.g. policy-makers, practitioners, community organisations, patients) is a promising approach to generating relevant and impactful...

Authors: Femke Hoekstra, Kathleen A. Martin Ginis, Veronica Allan, Anita Kothari and Heather L. Gainforth

The potential of an online educational platform to contribute to achieving sustainable development goals: a mixed-methods evaluation of the Peoples-uni online platform

This paper reports on an online platform, People’s Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni), as a means of enhancing access to master’s level public health education for health professionals. Peoples-uni...

Authors: Sanjeev Sridharan, Madeleine Bondy, April Nakaima and Richard F. Heller

Evaluating health research priority-setting in low-income countries: a case study of health research priority-setting in Zambia

Priority-setting (PS) for health research presents an opportunity for the relevant stakeholders to identify and create a list of priorities that reflects the country’s knowledge needs. Zambia has conducted sev...

Authors: Lydia Kapiriri, Corinne Schuster-Wallace and Pascalina Chanda-Kapata

Advancing the evaluation of integrated knowledge translation

Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) flows from the premise that knowledge co-produced with decision-makers is more likely to inform subsequent decisions. However, evaluations of manager/policy-maker-focused...

Authors: Sara A. Kreindler

Exploring the synergies between focused ethnography and integrated knowledge translation

Issues with the uptake of research findings in applied health services research remain problematic. Part of this disconnect is attributed to the exclusion of knowledge users at the outset of a study, which oft...

Authors: Jennifer Baumbusch, Sarah Wu, Sandra B. Lauck, Davina Banner, Tamar O’Shea and Leslie Achtem

A new interministerial strategy for the promotion of healthy eating in Portugal: implementation and initial results

To describe the implementation, main intervention areas and initial results of the Integrated Strategy for the Promotion of Healthy Eating (EIPAS) in Portugal.

Authors: Pedro Graça, Maria João Gregório, Sofia Mendes de Sousa, Sónia Brás, Tatiana Penedo, Telmo Carvalho, Narcisa M. Bandarra, Rui Matias Lima, Ana Paula Simão, Francisco Goiana-da-Silva, Maria Graça Freitas and Fernando Ferreira Araújo

Knowledge translation for realist reviews: a participatory approach for a review on scaling up complex interventions

Knowledge syntheses that use a realist methodology are gaining popularity. Yet, there are few reports in the literature that describe how results are summarised, shared and used. This paper aims to inform know...

Authors: Jennifer A. Boyko, Barbara L. Riley, Cameron D. Willis, Lisa Stockton, Dana Zummach, Jon Kerner, Kerry Robinson and Marie Chia

Exploring the complex pathway of the primary health care response to intimate partner violence in New Zealand

Integrating sustainable responses to intimate partner violence in health care is a persistent and complex problem internationally. New Zealand holds a leading role, having established national health system in...

Authors: Claire Gear, Elizabeth Eppel and Jane Koziol-Mclain

Disability, mental health, sexual orientation and gender identity: understanding health inequity through experience and difference

This paper focuses on inequities in health in the context of disability, mental health, sexual orientation and gender identity (The authors’ location outside of these identities is acknowledged as a serious li...

Authors: N. Nakkeeran and Barathi Nakkeeran

A health equity research agenda for India: results of a consultative exercise

This paper describes the process and outcome of a consultative exercise undertaken to develop a medium-term agenda for the next decade, and to identify a short list of immediate priorities for health equity re...

Authors: T.K. Sundari Ravindran and Tanya Seshadri

Globalisation and neoliberalism as structural drivers of health inequities

In this paper, we draw upon and build on three presentations which were part of the plenary session on ‘Structural Drivers of Health Inequities’ at the National Conference on Health Inequities in India: Transf...

Authors: Rama V. Baru and Malu Mohan

Building capacity in primary care rehabilitation clinical practice guidelines: a South African initiative

The large number of South Africans with disability who cannot access good quality rehabilitation presents a public health and human rights challenge. A cost-effective, efficient approach is required to address...

Authors: Q. Louw, K. Grimmer, J. M. Dizon, S. Machingaidze, H. Parker and D. Ernstzen

Physician perspectives on Choosing Wisely Canada as an approach to reduce unnecessary medical care: a qualitative study

Reducing monies spent on unnecessary medical care is one possible target to improve value in healthcare systems. Regional variation in the provision of medical care suggests physician behaviour and patient dem...

Authors: Mark Embrett and Glen E Randall