An in—Depth Interview Study of Health Care Policy Professionals and Their Research Needs

Abstract

This article presents the results of a qualitative research study that applied social marketing principles to better understand national health care policymakers' needs for research. The findings suggest that the current supply of health care policy research does not meet health care policymakers' needs and, as a result, often is not used to inform policy. As with any target audience, researchers and those who commission research must take into account the behavior, motivations and needs of policymakers in order to provide a “product or service” that is actually used. Those who want their research findings to inform policymakers' decisions must design their research, package results and develop distribution strategies that reflect an understanding of the policymakers' behavior process. There are two main findings from this study. First, there is a high level of consistency among the different types of policymakers in terms of their research needs and where these needs are not being met. Second, policymakers perceive a conflict between their needs and the existing traditional system for rewarding researchers and distributing research findings.