World Health Summit 2024: living evidence for policy in the spotlight
Last month’s World Health Summit in Melbourne proved the perfect forum to explore answers to some of public health’s biggest questions with colleagues from all corners of the globe.
A world café style workshop titled 'Updated research evidence at our fingertips – what are the implications and considerations for health policy?', did just that. The workshop was developed by ALEC's Samantha Chakraborty, Sally Green and Tari Turner together with Dr Tanja Kuchenmüller from the World Health Organization. It aimed to spark discussion and ideas about living evidence syntheses for policy.
‘Over 120 participants from around the world had the opportunity to learn about the concept of living evidence syntheses and consider how it may be useful in their own settings and work,’ says Samantha Chakraborty, Senior Research Fellow with Cochrane Australia and ALEC.
‘They shared their varied experiences of using living evidence syntheses in a diverse range of health-related research and policy roles. It was fantastic to see policymakers working with representatives from local and national governments, knowledge brokers, researchers, students, board directors and other interested colleagues. It was a truly multidisciplinary and multicultural forum.’
‘We found the general consensus was that participants had confidence that the living evidence they use is up to date and trustworthy,’ Samantha says. ‘It was broadly agreed that living evidence syntheses may make evidence-based interventions more feasible to apply into practice and improve research design because they – to quote one participant – “receive and incorporate feedback from users at the front line”.
Participants told us:
'As a senior health-service leader, living evidence could offer valuable and trusted evidence synthesis to guide policy and practice.'
'As a producer of evidence, I want the evidence that I generate incorporated into living evidence guidelines.'
'As an international health practitioner, living evidence is important to designing new public health programs and projects.'
‘For me one of the most interesting questions raised was how the insights from a living evidence synthesis can “transition from scientific to policy,” Samantha says. ‘We asked participants what would make living evidence most useful for them and they told us that an important but currently missing component of living evidence approaches is measures and stories of the value of using it. So we need to help paint the picture of what success looks like, and demonstrate through data and examples, how helpful it can be.’
Additionally, participants wanted:
tools to understand the economic impact of living evidence
guidance to improve efficient translation into policy and practice
guidance on how to communicate updates in a way that is transparent and useful
political willingness to experiment with using living evidence syntheses in policy decisions.
‘This forum has given us much food for thought,’ Samantha concludes. ‘Our teams at Cochrane Australia and the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration will be drawing on all these contributions and practical ideas to shape our program of work in the months ahead.'
