Knowledge translation interventions for facilitating evidence-informed decision-making amongst health policymakers

From bench to policy: a critical analysis of models for evidence-informed policymaking in healthcare

“…The model has several advantages, such as suggesting that policy is largely shaped by evidence and can respond to the community needs ( 120 ), connecting evidence-based policy-making with capacity building and enabling context-appropriate policies ( 121 ), focusing on three socio-ecological levels in the decision-making process, emphasizing the policy context and its influence on the interaction between research, evidence, and the policy process ( 122 ), identifying the key points of intervention in the pathways to evidence-informed policy and practice, and taking into account the contextual and decision-making factors and the policy influences ( 123 ), being applied to inform an intervention design and explaining the significance of policy processes and evidence use in local government planning ( 124 ), assisting researchers and policy actors in navigating the use of evidence ( 125 ), complementing other theories of knowledge utilization by highlighting how external factors affect the use of evidence in decision making ( 126 ), and showing how evidence may be used in the decision-making process ( 123 ). However, the model also has some limitations that need to be considered, such as not linking capacity building and interactive ‘knowledge to action’ in a consistent and theory-based way ( 121 ), focusing on evidence, how it is spread and applied with little attention to the political and changing policy-making context in low income countries ( 119 ), not accounting for knowledge generation beyond a policy idea ( 123 ), and being limited in the detail given to the influences on decision making ( 123 ). Evaluating the advantages and drawbacks of the EIPPP contributes to the central objective of this article in assessing different models for their utility in facilitating evidence-informed policymaking.…”