Abstract

BackgroundPolicymakers, stakeholders and researchers have not been able to find research evidence about health systems using an easily understood taxonomy of topics, know when they have conducted a comprehensive search of the many types of research evidence relevant to them, or rapidly identify decision-relevant information in their search results.MethodsTo address these gaps, we developed an approach to building a ‘one-stop shop’ for research evidence about health systems. We developed a taxonomy of health system topics and iteratively refined it by drawing on existing categorization schemes and by using it to categorize progressively larger bundles of research evidence. We identified systematic reviews, systematic review protocols, and review-derived products through searches of Medline, hand searches of several databases indexing systematic reviews, hand searches of journals, and continuous scanning of listservs and websites. We developed an approach to providing ‘added value’ to existing content (e.g., coding systematic reviews according to the countries in which included studies were conducted) and to expanding the types of evidence eligible for inclusion (e.g., economic evaluations and health system descriptions). Lastly, we developed an approach to continuously updating the online one-stop shop in seven supported languages.ResultsThe taxonomy is organized by governance, financial, and delivery arrangements and by implementation strategies. The ‘one-stop shop’, called Health Systems Evidence, contains a comprehensive inventory of evidence briefs, overviews of systematic reviews, systematic reviews, systematic review protocols, registered systematic review titles, economic evaluations and costing studies, health reform descriptions and health system descriptions, and many types of added-value coding. It is continuously updated and new content is regularly translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.ConclusionsPolicymakers and stakeholders can now easily access and use a wide variety of types of research evidence about health systems to inform decision-making and advocacy. Researchers and research funding agencies can use Health Systems Evidence to identify gaps in the current stock of research evidence and domains that could benefit from primary research, systematic reviews, and review overviews.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1478-4505-13-10) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

  • Policymakers, stakeholders and researchers have not been able to find research evidence about health systems using an understood taxonomy of topics, know when they have conducted a comprehensive search of the many types of research evidence relevant to them, or rapidly identify decision-relevant information in their search results

  • The methodological developments described in this paper have led to the creation of Health Systems Evidence – a one-stop shop for research evidence to support policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers interested in how to strengthen or reform health systems or in how to get cost-effective programs, services, and drugs to those who need them

  • The one-stop shop contains many functionalities designed to address the three challenges described earlier in this paper: health system policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers can find research evidence about health systems using an understood taxonomy of topics, know when they have conducted a comprehensive search of the many types of research evidence relevant to them, and rapidly identify decisionrelevant information in the results of their search (Table 3)

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Summary

Objectives

Our objective was to develop and refine the methods for an searched, comprehensive, free, one-stop shop for research evidence that could provide decisionrelevant information about the many types of questions asked by policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers regarding health systems

Methods
Results
Conclusion
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