Health

Reuters → Systemic lessons from South Korea’s Patient 31 Mar 31, 2020 health & systems & volatility & highlights

This changed with the emergence of “Patient 31.”

Reuters’ coverage of the “Korean clusters” provided the world with a vivid glimpse of the volatility of COVID-19. One person showed poor judgement, and in turn caused cascading catastrophe in her communities.

Events like the COVID-19 pandemic are thankfully rare. Moments like these—when a lot happens all at once, and the experience is shared by a collective—shape future history like nothing else. We are learning a lot from this. Not only are epidemiologists now a famous profession, but we’re all learning exactly what it takes to provide good healthcare, what good governance looks like, how public health is community health, and more.

Patient 31 holds a simple lesson for systemics: the fragility of apparently solid social systems. South Korea seemed to do everything right. Yet, due to the volatile nature of this particular socio-health system, a single “free radical” caused immense damage.

Similar volatility is evident—but more subtle—in other social systems. Consider how memes spread. Our massive communities may seem immovable at times, but it’s clear that the wrong (or right) phenomena can spread rapidly and deeply.

Stay safe.

→ our review identifies several approaches that show some promise for improving the use of research in population health policy. Nov 13, 2018 highlights & Health

our review identifies several approaches that show some promise for improving the use of research in population health policy. They include the following:

A system for commissioning rapid reviews
Tailored approaches to presenting research findings to policymakers
The involvement of policymakers in research teams and networks
Interactive seminars and conferencing technology for communicating evidence
Initiatives to build capability in people and across organisations
Funded institutional-level collaborations.

— http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/11/12/less-than-5-of-papers-on-the-use-of-research-in-health-policymaking-tested-interventions-to-see-what-worked-but-those-studies-reveal-a-number-of-strategies-for-improvement/

→ One theme was the importance of ensuring that policymakers are provided with research syntheses and summaries that match their needs Nov 13, 2018 highlights & Health One theme was the importance of ensuring that policymakers are provided with research syntheses and summaries that match their needs. This was the lesson from a study from Monash University, Australia, that interviewed 43 policymakers on a strategy aimed at supporting the use of systematic reviews in health policy. The policymakers in this study overwhelmingly agreed that research summaries were critical to increase the use of research. The study demonstrated a need for layered or “graded-entry” formats, ranging from short summaries all the way up to detailed reports. It showed the need for a mechanism to assess policymakers’ changing research needs so they could be targeted with a relevant synthesis.
This was also the message from a 2011 study from the US, which tested four different types of policy briefs on mammography screening with nearly 300 policymakers. The study authors found different types of policymakers tended to like different types of briefs, with staffers more likely to report a preference for story-focused briefs and legislators preferring data-focused briefs.
Another theme to emerge was the need for better collaboration between researchers and policymakers, and for the two to build closer relationships. One large study, involving nearly 1,000 policymakers, looked at an intervention where researchers presented their findings directly to policymakers in either traditional seminars or interactive roundtables. Policymakers agreed that such presentations stimulated their thinking, that the interactive roundtables were more relevant to their needs compared with traditional seminars, and that the new knowledge could be used in their work as policymakers.
Three of the studies under review focused on increasing organisational capacity to use research. A Canadian study looked at a scheme to improve implementation of best practice guidelines in health promotion programmes using a team of “organisational champions”, while a Dutch study explored the use of masterclasses for public health professionals and policymakers supporting a practice-based research project. — http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/11/12/less-than-5-of-papers-on-the-use-of-research-in-health-policymaking-tested-interventions-to-see-what-worked-but-those-studies-reveal-a-number-of-strategies-for-improvement/

→ This was also the message from a 2011 study from the US, which tested four different types of policy briefs on mammography screening with nearly 300 policymakers Nov 12, 2018 highlights & Health This was also the message from a 2011 study from the US, which tested four different types of policy briefs on mammography screening with nearly 300 policymakers. The study authors found different types of policymakers tended to like different types of briefs, with staffers more likely to report a preference for story-focused briefs and legislators preferring data-focused briefs. — http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/11/12/less-than-5-of-papers-on-the-use-of-research-in-health-policymaking-tested-interventions-to-see-what-worked-but-those-studies-reveal-a-number-of-strategies-for-improvement/

→ The first thing to note is that, although we identified over 300 papers on the use of research in health policymaking, the vast majority of these were descriptive Nov 12, 2018 highlights & Health The first thing to note is that, although we identified over 300 papers on the use of research in health policymaking, the vast majority of these were descriptive. Very few – in fact just 14 of 304 articles – actually concerned testing interventions to see whether they worked. There is a serious discrepancy, therefore, between surging interest in this area and the small number of studies actually testing strategies.
The 14 articles we did find (reporting on 13 intervention strategies) tended to be methodologically weak. Only one study used an experimental design, while one other used a pre/post-test design. The others used a range of approaches and were characterised by an absence of control groups, small sample sizes, and self-report data. Most measured outcomes related to factors that influence research use rather than actual research use. — http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/11/12/less-than-5-of-papers-on-the-use-of-research-in-health-policymaking-tested-interventions-to-see-what-worked-but-those-studies-reveal-a-number-of-strategies-for-improvement/