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Translating Evidence into Action

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The Translating Evidence into Action (E2A) Thematic Working Group (TWG) focuses on support of translating health systems evidence into action through knowledge exchange on good practices, lessons learned, and practical guidance and tools.

The aim of this TWG is to close the gap between research and action, by facilitating interactions between researchers, decision makers, media, practitioners and communities, as well as supporting researchers (especially from LMICs) to produce and disseminate their work to translate their research into health policy action.

Objectives

This thematic group will strategically focus our goals for the next four years on the creation of opportunities to:

  1. Enhance and showcase capacities of TWG members in evidence translation;
  2. Increase engagement between the working group and broader HSG membership; and
  3. Contribute to the global connectivity of key stakeholders in evidence to action (from researchers to practitioners to decision-makers).

We are dedicated to promoting regional diversity within the working group and aiming to designate regional champions or focal individuals based on our needs assessment/mapping exercise. These champions could serve as a sub-committee within the leadership and ensure activities fully reflect diverse regional needs (and leverage regional opportunities as well).

News and views

News and views

Access the latest blog posts and news items from the Translating Evidence into Action TWG.

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Facilitators

Ahmad Firas Khalid

Ahmad Firas Khalid

Chair

Anna Kalbarczyk

Anna Kalbarczyk

Co-Chair

Emily Vargas

Emily Vargas

Communication Chair

Cristián Mansilla

Cristián Mansilla

Project Management

Ahmad Firas Khalid

Ahmad Firas Khalid

Chair

As a health policy researcher specialized in humanitarian crises, Firas has dedicated time and effort to understand better how best to support evidence use in decision-making to improve the effectiveness of interventions in crisis zones. He created a new conceptual framework focused on putting forward actionable strategies to improve real-time evidence use in decision-making at multiple system levels: political, health, international humanitarian aid, and research systems.

Anna Kalbarczyk

Anna Kalbarczyk

Co-Chair

Dr Kalbarczyk is an implementation science researcher and assistant director of a university-wide academic center, the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. She currently manages a 7-country consortium that seeks to map, synthesize, and disseminate lessons learned from polio eradication via courses, implementation clinics, policy briefs, policy dialogues, and network development. Through this consortium she recently conducted a mixed-methods study to design a tool to assess and improve readiness of academic institutions in low-and middle-income countries to conduct knowledge translation activities. She is passionate about using and promoting knowledge translation approaches to engage decision-makers and improve knowledge utilization for improved health outcomes.

Emily Vargas

Emily Vargas

Communication Chair

Emily Vargas Riaño’s experience as a Founder, CEO, and senior consultant at the Evidence Knowledge Brokering in Public Health SAS company, and as a research specialist at National Institute of Health in Colombia and Mexico provided her with a strong background in knowledge management; systematic thinking; health research, and knowledge translation to improve the formulation and implementation of health interventions. Specialized focus in areas of policy development, health systems analysis with emphasis on the social determinants of health, and health system capability. Excellent interpersonal skills and sensitivity to work with multicultural and multidisciplinary teams.

Cristián Mansilla

Cristián Mansilla

Project Management

Cristián Mansilla is currently a PhD student in the Health Policy program at McMaster University, and a research assistant at the McMaster Health Forum. He has dedicated an important part of his professional career to inform health policy making processes by evidence. He founded and led the Evidence-Informed Policy Making Unit at the Ministry of Health in Chile, and he has also been a consultant on a number of evidence-informed health policymaking, and monitoring and evaluation projects for WHO.

Publications and resources

The Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) in Chile: lessons learned from a year of coordinated efforts

C. Mansilla, C.A. Herrera, A. Basagoitia and T. Pantoja

Informing the health policymaking process with the best available scientific evidence has become relevant to health systems globally. Knowledge Translation Platforms (KTP), such as the World Health Organization's Evidence Informed Policy Networks (EVIPNet), are a recognized strategy for linking research to action. This report describes the experience of implementing EVIPNet in Chile, from its objectives, organizational structure, strategy, activities, and main outputs, to its evolution over the course of its first year.

Mapping the use of research to support strategies tackling maternal and child health inequities: evidence from six countries in Africa and Latin America

E.M. Vargas-Riaño, V. Becerril-Montekio, M.Á. Gonzalez-Block, et al

Striving to foster collaboration among countries suffering from maternal and child health (MCH) inequities, the MASCOT project mapped and analyzed the use of research in strategies tackling them in 11 low- and middle-income countries. This article aims to present the way in which research influenced MCH policies and programs in six of these countries – three in Africa and three in Latin America.

Barriers and facilitators to knowledge translation activities within academic institutions in low-and middle-income countries

A. Kalbarczyk, D.C. Rodriguez, Y. Mahendradhata, et al

The barriers and facilitators of conducting knowledge translation (KT) activities are well-established but less is known about the institutional forces that drive these barriers, particularly in low resource settings. Understanding organizational readiness has been used to assess and address such barriers but the employment of readiness assessments has largely been done in high-income countries. The authors conducted a qualitative study to describe the institutional needs and barriers in KT specific to academic institutions in low- and middle-income countries.

Supporting the use of research evidence in decision-making in crisis zones in low-and middle-income countries: a critical interpretive synthesis

A.F. Khalid, J.N. Lavis, F. El-Jardali and M. Vanstone

Decision-makers in crisis zones are faced with the challenge of having to make health-related decisions under limited time and resource constraints and in light of the many factors that can influence their decisions, of which research evidence is just one. To address a key gap in the research literature about how best to support the use of research evidence in such situations, the authors conducted a critical interpretive synthesis approach to develop a conceptual framework that outlines the strategies that leverage the facilitators and address the barriers to evidence use in crisis zones.