Use of Cochrane Reviews to inform the health policy-making process in a rapid evidence synthesis program in Chile

Session: 

Oral session: Knowledge translation and communicating evidence (1)

Date: 

Sunday 16 September 2018 - 11:00 to 11:20

Location: 

Sidlaw Auditorium

All authors in correct order:

Mansilla C1, Herrera C2, Pantoja T2
1 Ministry of Health of Chile, Chile
2 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Presenting author and contact person

Presenting author:

Tomas Pantoja

Contact person:

Cristián Mansilla
Tomas Pantoja
Abstract text
Background:
Decision makers require urgent evidence-informed answers on a daily basis, to a number of policy questions. One of the existing strategies for providing these answers is rapid evidence synthesis, which aims to improve the access of evidence to decision makers, by significantly reducing the time needed to summarize the existing research related to policy questions.
The Ministry of Health of Chile has created the Unit of Evidence Informed Health Policies (UEIHP), which aims to promote use of the best available evidence in health policy-making processes. This unit follows the Evidence Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) international initiative, and prepares a number of evidence syntheses, including rapid evidence syntheses.

Objectives:
To present the methods used by the UEIHP to produce rapid evidence syntheses, showing how Cochrane Reviews have been used in the health policy-making process.

Methods:
This presentation will show the methods used in Chile to produce rapid evidence syntheses, which are largely based on relevant systematic reviews. The depth of the evidence analysis depends on the time available to deliver the product. Later, we will present the synthesis produced from 2014 to 2018, showing the number and percentage of Cochrane Reviews used in every synthesis, in order to have a measure of how Cochrane has potentially contributed to the health policymaking process in Chile.

Results:
The UEIHP has produced more than 60 rapid evidence syntheses from 2014 to 2018, answering several questions related to both public health and health systems issues. Thirty Cochrane Reviews were used to produce these syntheses. Cochrane Reviews represent 18% of the total number of systematic reviews used by all the rapid evidence syntheses.

Conclusions:
Cochrane Reviews are an important source of evidence to inform the health policy-making process. In Chile, rapid evidence syntheses have been a successful strategy for using Cochrane Reviews and bringing them closer to policy makers.

Patient or healthcare consumer involvement:
Patients and consumers are also part of the process to create a rapid evidence synthesis, by suggesting the inclusion of grey literature that is not always available for the reviewers. Also, they have been part of policy dialogues that were informed by evidence included in these syntheses.

Relevance to patients and consumers: 

Rapid evidence syntheses are an important approach to reduce the time to produce an evidence report, but keeping systematic and transparent methods. By making the scientific evidence available to policymakers faster than any other evidence synthesis, rapid evidence syntheses allow policymakers to better use their time for engaging with a variety of actors that are important for the policymaking process, such as patients and consumers. Also, in Chile rapid evidence syntheses have been produced by an inclusive process, where relevant stakeholders are invited before, during, and after the production of every report.