Webinar: Making wider use of tacit and unconventional evidence sources in health policy and systems decision making: the spectrum approach and the ACE tool
September 28th. 10AM - 11AM (CEST, Norwegian time)
Language: English
Where: Zoom - Register here
Evidence-informed decision-making is often discussed in terms of research evidence, but real-world policy decisions draw on a much wider range of knowledge, including global evidence, local data, professional experience, community values, practical implementation knowledge and other unconventional evidence sources. This webinar introduces two tools for making use of a wider range of different evidence sources in health decision making:
• A spectrum approach for mapping evidence across two dimensions: from tacit to scientific evidence, and from global to local evidence.
• The ACE tool to help decision-makers appraise the strengths and limitations of unconventional evidence sources
Drawing on a range of examples, the presentations will show how these approaches can help researchers and decision-makers make evidence choices more explicit, identify gaps in the evidence base, use unconventional sources more effectively, and reflect on whose evidence is included or overlooked in health policy processes.
Dennis Waithaka is a health policy and systems researcher at the Health Economics Research Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya. His areas of interest include evidence-informed decision-making, priority setting, and health financing. His recent work in Kenya examines evidence use in vaccine policy decisions and how different forms of knowledge can support more inclusive and accountable health policy processes.
Simon Lewin is a Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU); a Chief Specialist Scientist at the Health Systems Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council; and a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. His work is largely within the field of health systems research. Simon is a Co-lead for the Cochrane Person-Centred Care, Health Systems and Public Health Thematic Group.
Webinar: Are we taking conclusions in qualitative health research too far
October 14th. 10 AM – 11 AM (CEST, Norwegian time)
Language: English
Where: Zoom – Register here
How far are qualitative health researchers taking their conclusions?
Qualitative health research is increasingly used to inform practice, policy and evidence syntheses. But how far do the conclusions of individual qualitative studies actually reach, and how well are these broader claims justified?
Drawing on a mapping study of 50 recent qualitative interview studies published in health research, this webinar explores how researchers formulate, moderate and justify generalisations. We will look at where generalisations tend to go beyond the empirical basis of a study, why this happens particularly in implications for practice, and what makes a general claim more or less defensible. The webinar invites reflection on a fundamental question: How can qualitative research be both context sensitive and meaningfully generalisable, and how can we all as researchers, supervisors, project leaders, peer reviewers and editors, contribute to sound generalisation practices?
Benedicte Carlsen is Professor of Public Health at the Department of Health Promotion and Development at the University of Bergen. Her research focuses on the quality and methodological rigour of qualitative health research. She has also contributed to the development of the GRADE-CERQual approach, which is used to assess confidence in evidence from qualitative evidence syntheses.
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