Turning Evidence Into Policy, Primary Health Care Researchers And Policy Advisors Need To Work More Closely, Australia

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 20 Apr 2008 - 12:00 PDT

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Primary health care researchers and policy advisers need to work more closely if evidence is to contribute to decision making, according to an article in the supplement to the latest Medical Journal of Australia, Evidence into policy in Australian primary health care.

The article looks at the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) and its progress so far in bringing researchers and policy advisers closer together to inform policy decisions.

Professor Nicholas Glasgow, APHCRI Foundation Director, and his co-authors consider the challenges and successes of the Institute's Stream Four research program in linking policy advisers and researchers to increase both the researcher's capacity to respond to policy priorities and the capacity of policy advisers to use research evidence. The body of the supplement is papers arising from this research program, which look at chronic disease, indigenous health and childhood obesity.

"Improving the quality and effectiveness of primary health care requires the adoption of evidence into policy and practice," Prof. Glasgow says.

"APHCRI's approach in Stream Four has been to bring policy advisers and research teams together frequently, consider new ways of presenting research and to develop relationships between these diverse communities to facilitate the uptake of research into policy.

"This is the first attempt in Australia at using this model and analysis of the barriers to success, as well as acknowledgements of its many achievements, will enable APHCRI to build a stronger research program," he said.

In a related editorial in the supplement, Professor Nicholas Mays, Professor of Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says it will take closer collaboration for evidence to actively influence decision-making in Australia.

Professor Mays said the APHCRI research encountered many of the difficulties facing researchers everywhere in connecting with the health care policy process, including frequent non-availability of senior policy advisers, communication difficulties between researchers and policymakers, and little analysis of the barriers encountered.

"The outputs presented here represent the start of the process of dialogue, interaction, and network building rather than anything like the finished product," he said.

"The challenge now for APHCRI is to work with key policy and management bodies to link into organisational processes and practices so that they can make a clear difference to primary health care policy, services and outcomes."

The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

The original articles can be viewed online after the embargo date at http://www.mja.com.au.

Australian Medical Association