BACKGROUND The creation of successful health policy and location of resources increasingly relies on evidence-based decision-making. The development of intuitive, accessible tools to analyse, display and disseminate spatial data potentially provides the basis for sound policy and resource allocation decisions. As health services are rationalized, the development of tools such graphical user int...

The long-term challenge of increasing research use in health policymaking Increasing the extent to which health policies are informed by health research has long been the hope, and indeed sometimes the expectation, of those reforming health research systems. Now though, there are grounds for believing that the hopes are increasingly beginning to be turned into realities. This optimism is based ...

BACKGROUND A knowledge broker (KB) is a popular knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategy emerging in Canada to promote interaction between researchers and end users, as well as to develop capacity for evidence-informed decision making. A KB provides a link between research producers and end users by developing a mutual understanding of goals and cultures, collaborates with end users to...

Citizens'/community juries [CJs] engage members of the public in policy decision-making processes. CJs can be employed to develop policy responses to health problems that require the consideration of both community values and scientific evidence. Based on the principles of deliberative democracy, recent reviews indicate that findings from CJs have successfully been used to influence health poli...

The randomized controlled trial produces a clash of ethical principles with the need for informed consent (autonomy) in conflict with the principles of beneficence and justice. Informed consent is one of the major rate-limiting factors of recruitment and this delays the discovery of life-saving treatments indirectly. Whilst supporting the concept of non-exploitation we wish to challenge the pre...

Biomedical discoveries could improve people's health only if they are suited to the diverse political and social contexts, health systems and population groups. Knowledge generated through evidence-informed health policy and practice when applied to the local situation enhances the quality and efficiency of health care. This article describes four case studies on bridging the gap between knowle...

BACKGROUND The field of research on knowledge mobilization and evidence-informed policy-making has seen enduring debates related to various fundamental assumptions such as the definition of 'evidence', the relative validity of various research methods, the actual role of evidence to inform policy-making, etc. In many cases, these discussions serve a useful purpose, but they also stem from serio...

BACKGROUND Policy dialogues are critical for developing responsive, effective, sustainable, evidence-informed policy. Our multidisciplinary team, including researchers, physicians and senior decision-makers, comprehensively evaluated The Winnipeg Central Intake Service, a single-entry model in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to improve patient access to hip/knee replacement surgery. We used the evaluation ...