Bridging the Gap Between Research and Policy and Practice; Comment on “CIHR Health System Impact Fellows: Reflections on ‘Driving Change’ Within the Health System”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Abstract

Far too often, there is a gap between research and policy and practice. Too much research is undertaken with little relevance to real life problems or its reported in ways that are obscure and impenetrable. At the same time, many policies are developed and implemented but are untouched by, or even contrary to evidence. An accompanying paper describes an innovative programme in Canada to help bridge this gap. This commentary notes the growing acceptance of such initiatives but highlights the challenges of sustaining their benefits.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Meyer P. The People Beyond 12th Street: A Survey of Attitudes of Detroit Negroes after the Riot of 1967. Detroit: Detroit Urban League; 1967.
  2. Younge G. The Detroit riots of 1967 hold some lessons for the UK. The Guardian; September 5, 2011. http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/sep/05/detroit-riots-1967-lessons-uk.  Accessed April 25, 2019.
  3. Meyer P. Precision Journalism: A Reporter's Introduction to Social Science Methods. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 2002.
  4. Cheek FE, Rosenhaupt M. Are sociologists incomprehensible? An objective study. Am J Sociol. 1968;73(5):617-627.
  5. Fitzgerald GF. The Value of Useless Studies. Nature. 1892;45(1165):392. doi:10.1038/045392a0
  6. Hamlyn B, Shanahan M, Lewis H, et al. Factors Affecting Public Engagement by Researchers. London: Wellcome Trust; 2015.
  7. King A, Crewe I. The Blunders of Our Governments. London: Oneworld Publications; 2014.
  8. Lindblom CE, Cohen DK. Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 1979.
  9. Sim SM, Lai J, Aubrecht K, et al. CIHR health system impact fellows: reflections on “Driving Change” Within the Health System. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2019;8(6):325-328. 10.15171/IJHPM.2018.124
  10. Greenhalgh T, Fahy N. Research impact in the community-based health sciences: an analysis of 162 case studies from the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework. BMC Med. 2015;13(1):232. doi:10.1186/s12916-015-0467-4
  11. European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies 2019. http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/partners/observatory.   Accessed April 25, 2019.
  12. Oxman AD, Lavis JN, Lewin S, et al. SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health Policymaking (STP) 1: What is evidence-informed policymaking? Health Res Policy Syst. 2009;7 Suppl 1:S1. doi:10.1186/1478-4505-7-s1-s1
  13. Greenhalgh T, Wieringa S. Is it time to drop the 'knowledge translation' metaphor? A critical literature review. J R Soc Med. 2011;104(12):501-509. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2011.110285
  14. Isaac CA, Franceschi A. EBM: evidence to practice and practice to evidence. J Eval Clin Pract. 2008;14(5):656-659. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2008.01043.x
  15. Squires JE, Aloisio LD, Grimshaw JM, et al. Attributes of context relevant to healthcare professionals' use of research evidence in clinical practice: a multi-study analysis. Implement Sci. 2019;14(1):52. doi:10.1186/s13012-019-0900-8
  16. McKee M, Stuckler D. Reflective practice: how the World Bank explored its own biases? Int J Health Policy Manag. 2015;5(2):79-82. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2015.216
  17. Leontini R. Genetic risk and reproductive decisions: Meta and counter narratives. Health Risk Soc. 2010;12(1):7-20. doi:10.1080/13698570903508705
  18. Diethelm PA, Rielle JC, McKee M. The whole truth and nothing but the truth? The research that Philip Morris did not want you to see. Lancet. 2005;366(9479):86-92. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)66474-4
  19. McCambridge J, Daube M, McKee M. Brussels Declaration: a vehicle for the advancement of tobacco and alcohol industry interests at the science/policy interface? Tob Control. 2019;28(1):7-12. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054264
  20. Stuckler D, Ruskin G, McKee M. Complexity and conflicts of interest statements: a case-study of emails exchanged between Coca-Cola and the principal investigators of the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE). J Public Health Policy. 2018;39(1):49-56. doi:10.1057/s41271-017-0095-7
  21. Broniatowski DA, Jamison AM, Qi S, et al. Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate. Am J Public Health 2018;108(10):1378-1384. doi:10.2105/ajph.2018.304567
International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 8, Issue 9
September 2019
Pages 557-559

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 30 April 2019
  • Revise Date: 03 June 2019
  • Accept Date: 03 June 2019

Share

How to cite

Statistics