Guidance for evidence-informed policies about health systems: rationale for and challenges of guidance development

Abstract

In the first paper in a three-part series on health systems guidance, Xavier Bosch-Capblanch and colleagues examine how guidance is currently formulated in low- and middle-income countries, and the challenges to developing such guidance.

Figure 1. A generic knowledge translation framework across the research, policy, managerial, and societal domains.

Vertical rectangles contain the methods or approaches to bridging each phase, the frames at the bottom indicate the products for each phase, and the concepts in between the vertical rectangles represent the different forms of knowledge. Systematic reviews are summarised into a unified body of knowledge that links priority problems with the effects of interventions and implementation strategies. Knowledge summaries support the deliberative process in which stakeholders develop guidance products that, in turn, result in policies for services and programmes arrangements. The outcomes of programmes and services are evaluated to ascertain the extent to which the needs of the population have been met. Evaluation should inform further research, in an iterative process.