Abstract
BackgroundMany initiatives have been taken in the Islamic Republic of Iran to promote evidence-informed health policy-making (EIHP). However, these initiatives are not systematic. Since the implementation of EIHP is not consistent and the interventions in this regard are complex, a comprehensive plan could be a useful tool for employing initiatives to achieve and promote EIHP. Hence, this study aims to develop a roadmap for strengthening EIHP over a 3-year period in Iran.MethodsNine projects will be conducted to define the roadmap for strengthening EIHP. These projects include two reviews and a stakeholder analysis to identify the factors that facilitate or hinder achieving EIHP. The next study will be a qualitative study to prioritise the challenges and outline the main causes. The following steps will be a review of reviews to extract global experiences on interventions used for strengthening EIHP and two qualitative studies to examine the adoption of these interventions and develop an operational plan for strengthening EIHP in Iran. The research will be completed through conducting two qualitative-quantitative studies to design a tool for measuring EIHP and assessing EIHP in Iran at baseline.DiscussionThis national EIHP roadmap will surely be able to identify the gaps and bumps that might exist in the implementation plan for establishing EIHP and eliminate them as needed in the future. This roadmap can be a step in moving towards transparency and accountability in the health system and as thus towards good governance and improvement of the health system’s performance. Although the plan can be a good model for developing countries and may promote the use of evidence in health policy-making, we should assume that there are some critical contextual factors that could potentially hinder the complete and successful implementation of EIHP. Thus, to enhance EIHP in these countries with a policy-making context that does not fully support the use of evidence, it is crucial to think about not only those interventions that directly address the EIHP barriers, but also some long-term strategies to make required changes in the context, both beyond and within the health system.
Highlights
Many initiatives have been taken in the Islamic Republic of Iran to promote evidence-informed health policy-making (EIHP)
While Iran’s government has committed to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) [56], its health system faces several challenges[57]. These challenges have to be appropriately addressed through tough decisions made by health policymakers[58]. While it can be seen as a threat for our health system, we think it is a good opportunity to strengthen EIHP as a key element of good governance and a means to improve health systems performance
Most initiatives performed to improve EIHP in Iran focus on issues of access to evidence or building individual capacity [59]
Summary
Many initiatives have been taken in the Islamic Republic of Iran to promote evidence-informed health policy-making (EIHP). Iran has undertaken a number of important initiatives, during the recent health sector reform (Health Transformation Plan) that began in 2014, to achieve healthcare for everyone by expanding universal health coverage (UHC) by 2025 [1,2,3,4]. The experience of implementing various sector reforms has shown that the probability of achieving universal health coverage and equitable access to healthcare increases when decisions are made based on evidence [14,15,16]. The literature tells us that the lack of use or misuse of evidence remains one of the main challenges of health systems across the world [17, 18]
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