Abstract
ObjectivesDespite the recognition of the importance of evidence-informed health policy and practice, there are still barriers to translating research findings into policy and practice. The present study aimed to establish the feasibility of a rapid response mechanism, a knowledge translation strategy designed to meet policymakers' urgent needs for evidence about health systems in a low income country, Uganda. Rapid response mechanisms aim to address the barriers of timeliness and relevance of evidence at the time it is needed.MethodsA rapid response mechanism (service) designed a priori was offered to policymakers in the health sector in Uganda. In the form of a case study, data were collected about the profile of users of the service, the kinds of requests for evidence, changes in answers, and courses of action influenced by the mechanism and their satisfaction with responses and the mechanism in general.ResultsWe found that in the first 28 months, the service received 65 requests for evidence from 30 policymakers and stakeholders, the majority of whom were from the Ministry of Health. The most common requests for evidence were about governance and organization of health systems. It was noted that regular contact between the policymakers and the researchers at the response service was an important factor in response to, and uptake of the service. The service seemed to increase confidence for policymakers involved in the policymaking process.ConclusionRapid response mechanisms designed to meet policymakers' urgent needs for research evidence about health systems are feasible and acceptable to policymakers in low income countries.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13012-014-0114-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
A large amount of health research done globally to help improve lives and strengthen health systems results in about one million publications annually and another equal amount of unpublished work [1,2,3]
We report here on the feasibility of one such rapid response mechanism in a low income country (Uganda), aimed at meeting policymakers’ urgent needs for research evidence about health systems
The rapid response service Prior to this study, we developed a structure of a service to receive and respond to urgent requests for research evidence about health systems from policy and decision makers
Summary
A large amount of health research done globally to help improve lives and strengthen health systems results in about one million publications annually and another equal amount of unpublished work [1,2,3]. Evidence may be used to inform background discussions about the subject at hand; it may aid the definition of the problem, identify the different policy or practice options to consider, or inform implementation strategies in terms of barriers and facilitators [8] It may help identify new subjects for the policy agenda and evaluate the impacts of policies too [9]. Both researchers and policymakers acknowledge the importance of evidence-informed policy or decision making and practice [10,11]. The inability for health systems in many low and middle income countries to effectively use evidence to inform their decisions and interventions is cited as a major obstacle to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals [16,17]
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