This article is part of a series written for people responsible for making decisions about health policies and programmes and for those who support these decision makers. Policy dialogues allow research evidence to be considered together with the views, experiences and tacit knowledge of those who will be involved in, or affected by, future decisions about a high-priority issue. Increasing inte...

INTRODUCTION Researchers advocating for evidence-informed policy have attempted to encourage policymakers to develop a greater understanding of research and researchers to develop a better understanding of the policymaking process. Our aim was to apply findings drawn from studies of the policymaking process, specifically the theory of policy windows, to identify strategies used to integrate evi...

background in this article, we analyze one case instance of how proposals for change to the priority setting and resource allocation (psra) processes at a canadian healthcare institution reached the decision agenda of the organization’s senior leadership. we adopt key concepts from an established policy studies framework – kingdon’s multiple streams theory – to inform our analysis.   methods tw...

Hard on the heels of evidence-based medicine (EBM) comes evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP). At all levels in healthcare systems there is a hunger for better knowledge to inform policy and practice. Is this yet another of the fashions and fads that continually beset the National Health Service, or does EBPP mark a development that could fundamentally change the way in which health policy...

This article is part of a series written for people responsible for making decisions about health policies and programmes and for those who support these decision makers. Policy briefs are a relatively new approach to packaging research evidence for policymakers. The first step in a policy brief is to prioritise a policy issue. Once an issue is prioritised, the focus then turns to mobilising th...

Recent mass shootings have prompted a national dialogue around mental illness and gun policy. To advance an evidence-informed policy agenda on this controversial issue, we formed a consortium of national gun violence prevention and mental health experts. The consortium agreed on a guiding principle for future policy recommendations: restricting firearm access on the basis of certain dangerous b...

PROBLEM Ghana's population is ageing. In 2011, the Government of Ghana requested technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO) to help revise national policies on ageing and health. APPROACH We applied WHO's knowledge translation framework on ageing and health to assist evidence based policy-making in Ghana. First, we defined priority problems and health system responses by perfo...

BACKGROUND Health systems evidence can enhance policymaking and strengthen national health systems. In the Middle East, limited research exists on the use of evidence in the policymaking process. This multi-country study explored policymakers' views and practices regarding the use of health systems evidence in health policymaking in 10 eastern Mediterranean countries, including factors that inf...