Abstract
Beliefs that health policy-making is an inherently ‘ideological’ or ‘irrational’ process appear to have worked to prevent researchers from developing better understandings of the kind of evidence that does work to influence policy. Without a model of policy-making that positions policy decision-makers as capable of being informed by specific forms of evidence that speak to policy contexts, it is difficult for research to begin to shape health policy. Recent years have seen the development of a research industry that focuses on developing and describing research approaches for shaping health and social services policy. This analysis paper offers a highly selective overview of generic features of policy-relevant research for holistic health. It aims to support efforts to develop better evidence for health policy by exploring elements of the genre of policy-relevant research, particularly as it applies to the challenges of holistic health policy-making. First, it offers a conceptual definition of holistic health policy-making, as well as research evidence for this kind of policy making, identifying some of the generic features of policy-relevant research. Second, it outlines some of the key practices for delivering sound evidence for health policy, in ways that highlight the salient differences between doing research for holistic health policy, and doing academic research in health. The paper concludes with directions for developing better evidence for holistic health policy-making that question the assumptions of quality which often inform elite funding agencies, calling for their diversification.
Highlights
Evans and Stoddart conclude their watershed paper on the production of research for health policy with the view that ‘...There are other reasons why things do not happen, reasons that will not disappear in the light of advancing knowledge alone
Scanning of abstracts and papers from peer-reviewed journals using PUBMED database searches on various terms: ‘health policy research methods’ (3,030 references), ‘holistic health policy’ (146 references), ‘research utilisation policy’(124 references) and ‘research policy transfer’ (714 references): these scans suggested that there has been very little published giving an overview of the generic features of research designed to meet the needs of for holistic health policy-making; in contrast, a great deal has been written about specific content areas of health policy-making, the experiences of different countries and systems developing policy in particular areas; this exercise helped clarify the contribution such a paper could make and its rationale
Holistic health policy-making is about an engagement with the bio-medical, as well as the non biomedical, nature of holistic health challenges
Summary
Evans and Stoddart conclude their watershed paper on the production of research for health policy with the view that ‘...There are other reasons why things do not happen, reasons that will not disappear in the light of advancing knowledge alone. There is much ostensible truth in this statement, such beliefs may have prevented researchers from better understanding the kind of evidence that does work to influence policy. There is sometimes a mistaken belief that training in academic research—bio-medical or any other academic discipline—necessarily imparts advanced-level skills in delivering policy-relevant research. Without a model of policy-making that positions policy decision-makers as capable of being informed by specific forms of evidence that speak to policy contexts, it is difficult for research to begin to shape health policy
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