Encourage more public research and policy forums

A week ago I attended a meeting organised by the Consortium for National Health Research and the Ministry of Health whose main aim was to help translate research to policy in health care.

Dozens of papers were presented in all areas of health, and whoever attended the meeting left with a wealth of information.

A few of the research findings presented during the meeting were considered quite controversial, and have subsequently been widely covered in the press.

For me, however, what was most striking was the composition of the audience.

The meeting brought together researchers, policy makers and health care service users for a discussion on the process of bringing research to bear on policy and practice.

There are several benefits of having such meetings.

First, researchers get an opportunity to present their findings and make recommendations to those who would benefit most from the research.

Instead of publishing research in esoteric journals and leaving them to gather dust in academic cupboards, researchers are able to speak directly to the people who matter — policy makers and service users.

Second, policy makers get to engage the scientists who generate new knowledge and hear firsthand what needs to be done to improve the health of our people.

The information they gather from such forums helps them to develop relevant policies that can truthfully be said to be informed by evidence.

Additionally, policy makers in these forums may pose questions to the researchers, which may then be the basis of further research work that addresses relevant issues in the community.

IMPORTANT FORUMS
This, then, ensures that research and policy feed off each other, resulting in a virtuous cycle that benefits everyone.

Thirdly, bringing service users to an environment in which research and policy discussions are taking place ensures that they understand the basis upon which policy and practice is premised.

They obtain information on the state of the science in the area of health, and benefit from recommendations made by researchers in matters of public health importance.

Further, service users also manage to get their voice heard by both researchers and policy makers, potentially influencing new research directions as well as health policy.

In my view, these forums are indispensable if we are to move towards evidence-informed decision making at all levels of government.

While we encourage the government to increase the research budget in order to generate evidence for policy and practice, funding agencies must also insist on processes of dissemination that bring together disparate groups of people in order to ensure research has an impact outside of the Academy.

Traditionally, those of us involved in research have been mostly speaking to ourselves.

CHANGING COURSE
We write research proposals that are reviewed by fellow scientists, after which we work with other scientists to collect and analyse the data.

Once we have synthesised the data, we publish the results in the highest impact scientific journals we can find.

Unfortunately, the readership of these journals is often restricted to top-level researchers interested in a specialised area in the health sciences.

Rarely do the results end up in the hands of policy makers, and rarer still do members of the public catch a glimpse of our research processes and findings.

Researchers must change this practice if they want to ensure a continuous stream of both research ideas and funds.