Supporting the use of systematic reviews in policy making through review-derived products

Article type
Authors
Lavis J, Pantoja T
Abstract
Background: Systematic reviews (SRs) have the potential to contribute in summarising what is known about the issues faced by policy makers in the policy making process. But, in most cases, a number of SRs are available regarding an individual policy issue which makes their use by policy makers cumbersome. Then, review-derived products have been developed by different groups in order to support the use of SRs in policy making. Objective: To describe three relevant review-derived products aimed to support the use of systematic reviews in policy making. Methods: A narrative non-systematic review of the literature. Results: We identified three main groups of review-derived products supporting the use of the findings of reviews in policy making. Summaries of reviews – such as those developed by a European Union funded project (SUPPORT) – could add significant value to a review by evaluating its quality; grading the quality of evidence contained in it; and identifying the relevance of the findings in terms of local applicability and equity and economic considerations. Overviews of systematic reviews provide a ‘map’ of what evidence has and has not been synthesized. Finally, policy briefs start with a policy issue relevant for a particular jurisdiction (e.g., a country or a whole region) and then they mobilize many systematic reviews to better understand the problem, the policy or programmatic options to address the problem, and the implementation strategies for these options. Conclusions: Supporting the use of systematic reviews in policy making has received growing attention in recent years. More of the types of reviews needed by policy makers and stakeholders are being produced. Similarly, more review-derived products targeted at policy makers and stakeholders are being produced, and these products increasingly address the unique challenges faced by these groups, namely assessing the local applicability of reviews and mobilizing the range of reviews that are needed in different stages of the policy making process.