Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: there are many supporting materials available for the conduction of health policy briefs. After the analysis of different documents, the Center of Evidence from the Department of Science and Technology from the Brazilian Ministry of Health identified a research gap for a tool that could guide and standardize the conduction of a health policy.
Objective: to describe the development process of a Methodological Guideline for Health Policy Briefs.
Methods: the development of this guideline was based on Supporting Policy Relevant Reviews Trials and trials tools for evidence-informed health policymaking. Other documents were also consulted such as Guides for Preparing and Using Evidence-Based Policy Briefs, evidence synthesis for health policy and systems: a methods guide, and institutional documents from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To validate the guideline,the NEv team performed a literature search and graph generation in order to identify experts in this field and form an expert panel. After the elaboration of the final version, validation of the content was done by verifying the items in the instrument. The Delphi technique was used, which considers qualitative judgment of each item and the content inclusion, exclusion or suggestion for change. The Likert scale was applied in order to quantify the answers of the experts, using the Content Validity Index.
Results: the elaborated product consists of seven topics with information regarding the conduction of a health policy brief and three supporting tools:
1) protocol framework;
2) checklist for a systematic and transparent reporting of the necessary items and
3) quality assessment of the methodological quality of health policy briefs.
Conclusions: the Methodological Guideline for Health Policy Briefs is the first to be produced in Brazil and Latin America. It proposes to unify different scientific knowledge regarding the development process of health policy briefs, supporting its critical analysis by different researchers and reaching an international scenario with its version in English and Spanish.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: the development and validation of this tool did not include patients, however, experts in evidence informed health policies contributed to the process. Future actions may benefit patients with the use of evidence identified in the policy briefs.
Relevance to diversity: this study contributes to diversity considering that the process for the guideline development included different stakeholders in the health policy field, such as academic researchers and decision makers from the Brazilian Ministry of Health.The multidisciplinary work can contribute to a better conduction of health policy briefs using standardized, validated and updated methods.
Relevance to patients and consumers: the future health policy briefs conducted based on this methodological guideline will contribute towards improved decision making in the national health system.
Objective: to describe the development process of a Methodological Guideline for Health Policy Briefs.
Methods: the development of this guideline was based on Supporting Policy Relevant Reviews Trials and trials tools for evidence-informed health policymaking. Other documents were also consulted such as Guides for Preparing and Using Evidence-Based Policy Briefs, evidence synthesis for health policy and systems: a methods guide, and institutional documents from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To validate the guideline,the NEv team performed a literature search and graph generation in order to identify experts in this field and form an expert panel. After the elaboration of the final version, validation of the content was done by verifying the items in the instrument. The Delphi technique was used, which considers qualitative judgment of each item and the content inclusion, exclusion or suggestion for change. The Likert scale was applied in order to quantify the answers of the experts, using the Content Validity Index.
Results: the elaborated product consists of seven topics with information regarding the conduction of a health policy brief and three supporting tools:
1) protocol framework;
2) checklist for a systematic and transparent reporting of the necessary items and
3) quality assessment of the methodological quality of health policy briefs.
Conclusions: the Methodological Guideline for Health Policy Briefs is the first to be produced in Brazil and Latin America. It proposes to unify different scientific knowledge regarding the development process of health policy briefs, supporting its critical analysis by different researchers and reaching an international scenario with its version in English and Spanish.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: the development and validation of this tool did not include patients, however, experts in evidence informed health policies contributed to the process. Future actions may benefit patients with the use of evidence identified in the policy briefs.
Relevance to diversity: this study contributes to diversity considering that the process for the guideline development included different stakeholders in the health policy field, such as academic researchers and decision makers from the Brazilian Ministry of Health.The multidisciplinary work can contribute to a better conduction of health policy briefs using standardized, validated and updated methods.
Relevance to patients and consumers: the future health policy briefs conducted based on this methodological guideline will contribute towards improved decision making in the national health system.