Strategic measures are essential to facilitate the application of scientific research findings in health policy. A study published in the Health Research Policy and Systems journal—co-authored by Dr. Péter Gaál, President of MEMT—maps and evaluates national-level strategic documents on knowledge translation (KT) in health policy in detail.
In health policy, as evidenced by the mapped national strategies, KT is built on producing and making politically relevant research accessible, “packaging” it for policy decision-making, and fostering activities related to knowledge exchange. KT strategies play diverse roles in the complex and context-dependent process of policy decision-making.
According to the authors’ findings, the key principles of health-specific, evidence-based policymaking are present in these strategies, but their effectiveness depends on how they are implemented. Dedicated knowledge-brokering institutions and organizational capacities, promoting the use of evidence, and close collaboration and joint decision-making with key stakeholders are fundamental to supporting the application of research findings into policy guidelines.
Despite the growing significance of KT in health policy literature and numerous successful examples, there is currently no synthesis of national strategies in this area. The article aims to identify existing national KT strategies, evaluate their structure and content, analyze their objectives in the context of policy decision-making, and develop a practical template that individual countries can use to design their KT strategies.
The full article is available at the following link: Health-Policy-Systems-article