McMaster Health Forum | Embed Supports
As part of our commitment to strengthening health systems and getting the right programs, services and drugs to those who need them, the Forum provides health-system leaders (policymakers and stakeholders) with a variety of resources and services to help them institutionalize promising and proven approaches to evidence-informed policymaking.
Examples of the types of good practices we’ve seen and have supported (or could support) include:
- strong messages are routinely sent from all levels of the organization that research evidence is a key input to the decision-making process;
- performance criteria for staff include at least one criterion related to their use of research evidence in policy and program development;
- a research-evidence checklist must be completed before briefing materials are submitted to the minister, cabinet or other key decision-makers;
- expert review groups are required to draw on research evidence, involve a methodologist and citizens in their deliberations, and link the recommendations in their reports to the best available research evidence; and
- journalists closely examine statements made by health-system leaders and identify when they are and are not supported by the best available research evidence.
If you are a health-system leader interested in raising the bar for evidence-informed decision-making in your organization, contact us at forum@mcmaster.ca to find out how we can help through ‘supportive audits,’ external reviews of reports, and adapting resources to the needs of your organization.
Through Forum+, we can provide similar types of support to social-system leaders.
Learn more about how the Forum has helped organizations to embed supports for evidence-informed decision-making.