Project Area: Health policy and systems research
Project Summary
There is a growing global focus on the use of research evidence within health policy decision-making. The use of high-quality research evidence by health policymakers is crucial to ensure safe and effective healthcare and optimise patient and public health outcomes. The term knowledge translation (KT) is used to describe the processes and strategies needed to enhance the use of research evidence. KT interventions are “activities intended to increase KT at the level of practice, systems and policies”. While there are several examples of KT interventions that aim to improve how research evidence is used by health policymakers, there are limited examples of high quality robust trial evaluations of such interventions. The lack of robust trial evaluations in this field means that the effectiveness of KT interventions for facilitating evidence-informed public health decision-making is largely unknown.
Challenges with the recruitment and retention of health policymakers as participants were previously identified as the primary reason for discontinuation of a trial evaluation of a KT intervention in this population. However, although the recruitment and retention of patient, public and healthcare professional participants within trials has been investigated, this has not been explored with policymaker populations who may face distinct challenges. As such, there is a lack of understanding regarding why trial evaluations are limited in this area, and what factors influence the recruitment and retention of health policymakers/policy organisations to trials. This PhD will explore how public health policymakers (and their organisations) can be recruited to, and retained as participants of, trials of KT interventions. Ultimately, the downstream impact of this work is to improve the use of research in health policy and thus improve health and service-level outcomes for patients and members of the public.
This PhD aims to inform the conduct of trial evaluations of knowledge translation (KT) interventions that aim to facilitate the use of evidence by policymakers in public-health decision-making. Specifically, the PhD will explore how public health policymakers (and their organisations) can be recruited to, and retained as participants of, trials of KT interventions. This will be achieved by:
- Mapping existing evidence regarding recruitment and retention of health policymakers within trials of KT interventions using a scoping review
- Exploring views and experiences of recruitment and retention amongst triallists who have conducted or registered trials of KT interventions with health policymakers as participants through qualitative interviews
- Exploring views and experiences of recruitment and retention in trials of KT interventions amongst health policymakers using qualitative interviews
- Developing an evidence-based intervention targeting health policymakers’ recruitment and retention behaviours and broader contextual factors by integrating the findings of Studies 1-3.
Skills Required
(If applying for this project you will be asked to outline how you meet the skills required below)
Desirable skills: Understanding/awareness of healthcare policy, qualitative research skills, evidence synthesis skills, understanding/awareness of trials methodology
Essential skills: None required
Supervisory team:
Prof Elaine Toomey, PI/Primary Supervisor,
Centre for Health Research Methodology in the School of Nursing/Midwifery in the University of Galway
Prof Molly Byrne, School of Psychology, University of Galway
Prof Shaun Treweek, Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen
This project will be based in the University of Galway.
