Article type
Year
Abstract
Background:
Robust evidence shapes effective and efficient health services. Policy- makers need to understand what research can offer, and researchers need to understand policy-makers’ needs. 'Buddies' aims to help policy-makers to demand and use systematic reviews, and researchers to respond to their requirements.
Methods:
Conducted in South Africa and Cameroon at provincial and regional government using five phases: (1) a situational analysis to understand policy-makers’ requirements and what influences their use of evidence; (2) workshops to help policymakers identify research questions and draw on systematic reviews to inform decisions; (3) a ‘buddy’ model to create links between policy-makers and researchers around specific priority policy questions identified during the earlier phases of the project; (4) provision of resources to guide policy-makers and links to relevant researchers; and (5) evaluation of the model to identify lessons learnt.
Results:
Good relationships between policy-makers and researchers are essential to aid evidence informed decision making. Researchers need to understand how policy-makers operate, what their priorities are and where evidence fits into decision-making to tailor strategies to improve the use of evidence in policy-making. Pre- and post-workshop assessments demonstrated an improvement in the capacity of policy-makers to formulate questions, find and understand evidence from systematic reviews and interpret it using tools such as GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation). Results of the 'buddy' model and evaluation, currently in progress, will be reported at the colloquium.
Discussion and Conclusions:
Building capacity and effective engagement between researchers and health service decision makers can increase demand for evidence and help researchers prioritize topics for reviews. Dialogue and personal contact, central to the 'Buddies project', helps facilitate this partnership. Such partnership provides a knowledge sharing platform that could strengthen the health system through enhancing evidence informed decision making.
Robust evidence shapes effective and efficient health services. Policy- makers need to understand what research can offer, and researchers need to understand policy-makers’ needs. 'Buddies' aims to help policy-makers to demand and use systematic reviews, and researchers to respond to their requirements.
Methods:
Conducted in South Africa and Cameroon at provincial and regional government using five phases: (1) a situational analysis to understand policy-makers’ requirements and what influences their use of evidence; (2) workshops to help policymakers identify research questions and draw on systematic reviews to inform decisions; (3) a ‘buddy’ model to create links between policy-makers and researchers around specific priority policy questions identified during the earlier phases of the project; (4) provision of resources to guide policy-makers and links to relevant researchers; and (5) evaluation of the model to identify lessons learnt.
Results:
Good relationships between policy-makers and researchers are essential to aid evidence informed decision making. Researchers need to understand how policy-makers operate, what their priorities are and where evidence fits into decision-making to tailor strategies to improve the use of evidence in policy-making. Pre- and post-workshop assessments demonstrated an improvement in the capacity of policy-makers to formulate questions, find and understand evidence from systematic reviews and interpret it using tools such as GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation). Results of the 'buddy' model and evaluation, currently in progress, will be reported at the colloquium.
Discussion and Conclusions:
Building capacity and effective engagement between researchers and health service decision makers can increase demand for evidence and help researchers prioritize topics for reviews. Dialogue and personal contact, central to the 'Buddies project', helps facilitate this partnership. Such partnership provides a knowledge sharing platform that could strengthen the health system through enhancing evidence informed decision making.