PHM-Exch> Supporting the use of Cochrane Reviews in health policy and management decision-making: Health Systems Evidence

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) <ruglucia at paho.org>
crossposted from: EQUIDAD at listserv.paho.org


 *Supporting the use of Cochrane Reviews in health policy and management
decision-making:
Health Systems Evidence

*

Kaelan A Moat, Health Policy PhD Program, McMaster University, Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada
John N Lavis, Director, McMaster Health Forum; Canada Research Chair in
Knowledge Transfer and Exchange; Professor, Department of Clinical
Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Member, Centre for Health Economics and
Policy Analysis; Associate Member, Department of Political Science, McMaster
University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

 *The Cochrane Library – February 2011

*

Available online at: http://bit.ly/hdPzwS

 The idea that research evidence should play a more prominent role in health
policy and health system management has been frequently promoted and widely
accepted during the past
decade.[1<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_1%23ref_1>
,2<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_2%23ref_2>
,3<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_3%23ref_3>]
However, bridging the gap between what has been learned through research and
what is considered salient by policy-makers and stakeholders is rarely
straightforward.

 Nevertheless, there are several activities that have promise for better
linking evidence to
action.[4<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_4%23ref_4>]
One approach, sometimes called ‘facilitating user-pull’, places emphasis on
creating ’one-stop shops’ for relevant, high-quality and optimally packaged
systematic reviews and related
products.[4<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_4%23ref_4>]
These types of efforts have recently gained more recognition and are viewed
as key elements for strategies to strengthen national health
systems,[5<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_5%23ref_5>]
as was noted at the First Global Symposium on Health Systems
Research<http://www.hsr-symposium.org/>,
held in Montreux, Switzerland, in November 2010.

 Health Systems Evidence <http://www.healthsystemsevidence.org/> (HSE) was
developed as a one-stop shop with an emphasis on policy- and
management-related systematic reviews and related products. While *The
Cochrane Library *is the one-stop shop for those with questions about
clinical programmes and services or medicines, and health-evidence.ca has
emerged as the one-stop shop for those with questions about public health
programmes and services,[6<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_6%23ref_6>]
HSE is the only resource that answers questions about how to organise health
systems in order to ensure that cost-effective programmes and services get
to those who need them. It first became available as a free online resource
in late 2008.

 *There are two key factors that drive the use of research evidence in
policy-making: timeliness, and interactions between policy-makers and
researchers*.[7<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_7%23ref_7>]
HSE addresses the timeliness issue. With relevant reviews and review-related
products categorised and presented in an accessible format, HSE enables
policy-makers and stakeholders to find out quickly whether synthesised
research evidence exists on a pressing issue and when the literature was
last searched. HSE also provides information on the quality of the review
and on the countries where the included studies were conducted, as well as
links to structured, decision-relevant summaries.

 The product of a collaboration between the McMaster Health
Forum<http://www.mcmasterhealthforum.org/>,
McMaster University’s Program in Policy
Decision-making<http://www.researchtopolicy.org/Home>,
the Canadian Cochrane Centre <http://ccnc.cochrane.org/>, and Rx for
Change<http://www.cadth.ca/index.php/en/compus/optimal-ther-resources/interventions/>,
HSE is a continually updated, searchable repository of syntheses of research
evidence, coded according to their relevance to governance, financial and
delivery arrangements, and strategies for implementing change. Records
contained in HSE are identified by:
(1) annual searches of Medline;
(2) review of each monthly issue of the *Cochrane Database of Systematic
Reviews*;
(3) review of each weekly update from the *Database of Abstracts of Reviews
of Effects*;
(4) review of each update of the Cochrane Qualitative Research Methods
Group's database of qualitative reviews; and
(5) regular scanning of listservs and websites.

 Each synthesis has links to user-friendly summaries, abstracts and
full-text reports (when freely available), together with information about
how recently the search for studies was conducted, the quality of the
synthesis, and the countries in which the studies were conducted, helping
policy-makers and managers to assess the relevance of each
record.[5<http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/editorial/1018237/Supporting-the-use-of-Cochrane-Reviews-in-health-policy-and-management-decision-.html#ref_5%23ref_5>
]…….
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