Articles

The dark side of coproduction: do the costs outweigh the benefits for health research?

Coproduction, a collaborative model of research that includes stakeholders in the research process, has been widely advocated as a means of facilitating research use and impact. We summarise the arguments in f...

Authors: Kathryn Oliver, Anita Kothari and Nicholas Mays

Supporting implementation of Cochrane methods in complex communication reviews: resources developed and lessons learned for editorial practice and policy

Every healthcare encounter involves some form of communication and there is growing recognition that effective health communication is central to the delivery of safe, high-quality healthcare. Conversely, poor...

Authors: Rebecca Ryan and Sophie Hill

The hepatitis C infection in Iran: a policy analysis of agenda-setting using Kingdon’s multiple streams framework

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes a large number of deaths annually worldwide. Policies play an important role in regulating healthcare agendas and prioritising of health-related issues. Understanding t...

Authors: Masoud Behzadifar, Hasan Abolghasem Gorji, Aziz Rezapour and Nicola Luigi Bragazzi

Taking stock of 10 years of published research on the ASHA programme: examining India’s national community health worker programme from a health systems perspective

As India’s accredited social health activist (ASHA) community health worker (CHW) programme enters its second decade, we take stock of the research undertaken and whether it examines the health systems interfa...

Authors: Kerry Scott, Asha S. George and Rajani R. Ved

What do the implementation outcome variables tell us about the scaling-up of the antiretroviral treatment adherence clubs in South Africa? A document review

The successful initiation of people living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in South Africa fomented challenges of poor retention in care and suboptimal adherence to medication. Following evidence of...

Authors: Ferdinand C. Mukumbang, Zaida Orth and Brian van Wyk

How have researchers defined and used the concept of ‘continuity of care’ for chronic conditions in the context of resource-constrained settings? A scoping review of existing literature and a proposed conceptual framework

Within the context of the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally, there is limited evidence on how researchers have explored the response to chronic health needs in the context of health p...

Authors: Lana Meiqari, Tammam Al-Oudat, Dirk Essink, Fedde Scheele and Pamela Wright

Using narratives to impact health policy-making: a systematic review

There is increased interest in using narratives or storytelling to influence health policies. We aimed to systematically review the evidence on the use of narratives to impact the health policy-making process.

Authors: Racha Fadlallah, Fadi El-Jardali, Mohamed Nomier, Nour Hemadi, Khurram Arif, Etienne V. Langlois and Elie A. Akl

Health researchers’ experiences, perceptions and barriers related to sharing study results with participants

Although research participants are generally interested in receiving results from studies in which they participate, health researchers rarely communicate study findings to participants. The present study was ...

Authors: Christopher R. Long, Rachel S. Purvis, Elizabeth Flood-Grady, Kim S. Kimminau, Robert L. Rhyne, Mark R. Burge, M. Kathryn Stewart, Amy J. Jenkins, Laura P. James and Pearl A. McElfish

Blending integrated knowledge translation with global health governance: an approach for advancing action on a wicked problem

The persistence of health inequities is a wicked problem for which there is strong evidence of causal roots in the maldistribution of power, resources and money within and between countries. Though the evidenc...

Authors: Katrina Marie Plamondon and Julia Pemberton

‘Virus Carriers’ and HIV testing: navigating Ukraine’s HIV policies and programming for female sex workers

There are an estimated 80,100 female sex workers (FSWs) in Ukraine, of whom 7% are living with HIV. Early HIV diagnosis continues to be a public health priority in Ukraine as only approximately 54% of people l...

Authors: Anna Tokar, Jacob Osborne, Kateryna Slobodianiuk, Dirk Essink, Jeffrey V. Lazarus and Jacqueline E. W. Broerse

The impact generated by publicly and charity-funded research in the United Kingdom: a systematic literature review

To identify, synthesise and critically assess the empirical evidence of the impact generated by publicly and charity-funded health research in the United Kingdom.

Authors: Daniela Gomes and Charitini Stavropoulou

The place of learning in a universal health coverage health policy process: the case of the RAMED policy in Morocco

To progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), each country will have to develop its systemic learning capacity. This study aims at documenting how, across time, learning can feed into a UHC policy proce...

Authors: E. Akhnif, J. Macq and Bruno Meessen

Addressing fragility through community-based health programmes: insights from two qualitative case study evaluations in South Sudan and Haiti

Fragility can have a negative effect on health systems and people’s health, and poses considerable challenges for actors implementing health programmes. However, how such programmes, in turn, affect the overal...

Authors: Séverine Erismann, Sibel Gürler, Verena Wieland, Helen Prytherch, Nino Künzli, Jürg Utzinger and Bernadette Peterhans

The National Institute for Health Research Hyperacute Stroke Research Centres and the ENCHANTED trial: the impact of enhanced research infrastructure on trial metrics and patient outcomes

The English National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network first established Hyperacute Stroke Research Centres (HSRCs) in 2010 to support multicentre hyperacute (< 9 h) and complex stroke re...

Authors: Thompson G. Robinson, Xia Wang, Alice C. Durham, Gary A. Ford, Joy Liao, Sine Littlewood, Christine Roffe, Philip White, John Chalmers and Craig S. Anderson

A bibliometric analysis of health-related literature on natural disasters from 1900 to 2017

Worldwide, natural disasters have caused a large number of deaths and considerable morbidity. Nevertheless, limited information is available on how the health-related literature on natural disasters has evolve...

Authors: Waleed M. Sweileh

Addressing the affordability of cancer drugs: using deliberative public engagement to inform health policy

Health system expenditure on cancer drugs is rising rapidly in many OECD countries given the costly new treatments and increased rates of use due to a growing and ageing population. These factors put considera...

Authors: Colene Bentley, Stuart Peacock, Julia Abelson, Michael M. Burgess, Olivier Demers-Payette, Holly Longstaff, Laura Tripp, John N. Lavis and Michael G. Wilson

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