Evidence-based decision-making 8: Health policy, a primer for researchers

There is a growing expectation that research will be used to inform decision-making. It is important for researchers to understand how health policy is developed and the different ways they can influence the development of policy. Public policy is developed to resolve identified problems. Health policy is a subset of public policy and is typically concerned with issues related to the health of populations either from a service delivery perspective or from a broader public health and social determinants of health perspective. The policy planning algorithm is well established and follows the basic decision-making framework: assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. A variety of government and nongovernment stakeholders engage in complex debates to identify and resolve policy issues. In this chapter we explore how researchers can use their research to influence the development of health policy. Knowledge translation strategies focused on communicating research to policy-makers require considerable thought and planning.