Abstract
The global focus on nation states' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic has rightly highlighted the importance of science and evidence as the basis for policy action. Those with a lifelong passion for evidence-based policy (EBP) have lauded Australia's and other nations' policy responses to COVID-19 as a breakthrough moment for the cause. This article reflects on the complexity of the public policy process, the perspectives of its various actors, and draws on Alford's work on the Blue, Red and Purple zones to propose a more nuanced approach to advocacy for EBP in health. We contend that the pathway for translation of research evidence into routine clinical practice is relatively linear, in contrast to the more complex course for translation of evidence to public policy - much to the frustration of health researchers and EBP advocates. Cairney's description of the characteristics of successful policy entrepreneurs offers useful guidance to advance EBP and we conclude with proposing some practical mechanisms to support it. Finally, we recommend that researchers and policy makers spend more time in the Purple zone to enable a deeper understanding of, and mutual respect for, the unique contributions made by research, policy and political actors to sound public policy.
Highlights
The global focus on nation states’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic has rightly highlighted the importance of science and evidence as the basis for policy action
This article reflects on the generalisability of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to evidence-based policy (EBP), the complexity of the public policy process, the perspectives of its various actors, and proposes some guidance for progressing a more nuanced approach to advocacy for EBP in health
EBM has progressed beyond its early focus on tiers of evidence, randomised control trials, systematic reviews etc., to extensive work in knowledge translation,[2,3] to institutional arrangements that enable it, and more recent applications in the form of value-based health care
Summary
The global focus on nation states’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic has rightly highlighted the importance of science and evidence as the basis for policy action. Actors with a lifelong passion for evidence-based medicine (EBM) and evidencebased policy (EBP) have lauded Australia’s and other nations’ policy responses to COVID-19 as a breakthrough moment for the cause.
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