Article type
Year
Abstract
Background:
Cochrane is known for providing high-quality research syntheses. Much work has been done to try to encourage the use of this evidence in health-decision making. But how well are we achieving our goals? In 2020, the Cochrane Knowledge Translation (KT) Department considered how to evaluate their KT programme and how to support others in Cochrane in integrating evaluation into their work. Evaluation is fundamental to rapid-learning health systems. In order to learn and adapt, we need to evaluate not only what impacts we are having, but what is helping and hindering us from getting evidence into practice.
Objectives:
We aimed to understand:
-the facilitators and barriers to using Cochrane evidence amongst our four KT target audiences: consumers and the general public, healthcare practitioners, policymakers and healthcare managers, researchers and research funders
-what Cochrane is doing to address those facilitators and barriers
-how we will know whether KT activities are making a difference
-what support others in the Cochrane community need to evaluate their KT work
Methods:
We collected feedback from more than 200 people within and external to Cochrane using interviews, discussion groups and online surveys. A working group made up of Cochrane community members helped to develop and test evaluation tools. Using this information we created a visualisation for our KT activities, which was used to develop an evaluation plan.
Results:
Interviews with external audiences indicated that three quarters of the healthcare consumers, practitioners, researchers and policy makers said that the work Cochrane does could be useful to them, but fewer than one third had actually used evidence syntheses in the past three years – and most had not used ours! Barriers included accessibility, lack of confidence and perceived issues with our content. Cochrane’s KT team and fields, centres and groups all have work underway to address these issues.
We have developed a framework and data collection tools for evaluating Cochrane’s KT work at strategic level. We have also developed a suite of resources and training to help Cochrane groups evaluate their own KT activities globally. These tools are available for use by the Cochrane community.
Conclusions:
Cochrane’s vision is a world of improved health, with decisions informed by high-quality, relevant and up-to-date research evidence. Essential to achieving Cochrane’s strategic objectives is an understanding of whether Cochrane is making a difference and how the organisation, outputs and processes could be developed to further achieve the aims. We now have the tools to start to help us do this. The next step is to start embedding those tools so that evaluation and the rapid-learning healthcare approach becomes fundamental to what we all do.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement:
Representatives from healthcare consumer organisations around the world provided feedback about the things that facilitated and acted as barriers to them accessing and using evidence.
Cochrane is known for providing high-quality research syntheses. Much work has been done to try to encourage the use of this evidence in health-decision making. But how well are we achieving our goals? In 2020, the Cochrane Knowledge Translation (KT) Department considered how to evaluate their KT programme and how to support others in Cochrane in integrating evaluation into their work. Evaluation is fundamental to rapid-learning health systems. In order to learn and adapt, we need to evaluate not only what impacts we are having, but what is helping and hindering us from getting evidence into practice.
Objectives:
We aimed to understand:
-the facilitators and barriers to using Cochrane evidence amongst our four KT target audiences: consumers and the general public, healthcare practitioners, policymakers and healthcare managers, researchers and research funders
-what Cochrane is doing to address those facilitators and barriers
-how we will know whether KT activities are making a difference
-what support others in the Cochrane community need to evaluate their KT work
Methods:
We collected feedback from more than 200 people within and external to Cochrane using interviews, discussion groups and online surveys. A working group made up of Cochrane community members helped to develop and test evaluation tools. Using this information we created a visualisation for our KT activities, which was used to develop an evaluation plan.
Results:
Interviews with external audiences indicated that three quarters of the healthcare consumers, practitioners, researchers and policy makers said that the work Cochrane does could be useful to them, but fewer than one third had actually used evidence syntheses in the past three years – and most had not used ours! Barriers included accessibility, lack of confidence and perceived issues with our content. Cochrane’s KT team and fields, centres and groups all have work underway to address these issues.
We have developed a framework and data collection tools for evaluating Cochrane’s KT work at strategic level. We have also developed a suite of resources and training to help Cochrane groups evaluate their own KT activities globally. These tools are available for use by the Cochrane community.
Conclusions:
Cochrane’s vision is a world of improved health, with decisions informed by high-quality, relevant and up-to-date research evidence. Essential to achieving Cochrane’s strategic objectives is an understanding of whether Cochrane is making a difference and how the organisation, outputs and processes could be developed to further achieve the aims. We now have the tools to start to help us do this. The next step is to start embedding those tools so that evaluation and the rapid-learning healthcare approach becomes fundamental to what we all do.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement:
Representatives from healthcare consumer organisations around the world provided feedback about the things that facilitated and acted as barriers to them accessing and using evidence.