Session 4.3 – Knowledge Translation in Priority Setting

Thursday October 30 11:30-12:30

Diffusion of Priority Setting Ethical Principles in Swedish Medical Education

(Abstract 0040)

Faisal Omar, Gustav Tinghög
Linköping University, Sweden

Background: In the face of financial constraints, health care systems must prioritize the range of services which they can rationally provide. How these difficult priority-setting decisions are made has been the center of increased discussion, and Sweden has been engaged in it from a very early stage. It has now been over a decade since the ethical platform underpinning Swedish priority setting had been put into law in 1997.

Objective:

• Explore the degree to which the notion of “open (explicit) priority setting” and Swedish priority setting principles have penetrated medical education at one of Sweden’s universities.
• Investigate opinions of medical students regarding:
• Usefulness of priority setting principles
• The role different actors i.e. elected politicians and health care personnel in priority setting and rationing decisions.

Methods:

• Survey questionnaire (14 multiple choice items) distributed to medical students in their final semester. Data analyzed using SPSS version 15.
• Cognitive interviewing was used in the construction, and subsequent revisions of the survey prior to its administration.

Results:

• Large degree of familiarity and agreement with ethical principles.
• Low levels of familiarity with the notion of “open (explicit) priority setting”- difficulties with ambiguity.
• Low level of knowledge about the role of elected politicians in priority setting decisions.

Policy Implications: Future discussion about priority setting should be contextualized within explicit and transparent deliberation otherwise the very purpose for which the priority setting exercise has been undertaken by policy makers will fail to be addressed.

KSTE & Early Child Care - Bridging the Gap

(Abstract 0146)

Hope Beanlands, Lesley Poirier, Philip Girvan, Karen Weir
National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, Canada

Background: Knowledge translation (KT) has been defined as "…the exchange, synthesis and ethically sound application of research findings within a complex system of relationships among researchers and knowledge users; the incorporation of research knowledge into policies and practice, thus translating knowledge into improved health of the population” (Kiefer et al., 2005).

Objective: This objective of this oral presentation is to position KT as an active process emphasizing the importance of building relationships and collaboration among research producers and users. KT activities among public health practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers can bridge the gap between research producers and users.

Methods: This oral presentation will:

• Situate the social determinants of health as prime factors in population health using a health equity lens focus on public health programs on parenting and childcare, pre & post-natal care, food insecurity, women and gender equity, and family-friendly workplaces; and
• Discuss the KT successes and challenges in bridging the gap between public health researchers and practitioners, the lessons learned and the challenges for the future in regards to disseminating best practices in early child care, women and gender equity, and family friendly workplaces.

Results: Discussions of what has worked and the challenges of this work will provide the audience with creative new approaches and methodologies for knowledge translation & dissemination.

Policy Implications: Focusing KT activities on the social determinants of health is one approach to enable governments to address the socio-economic gradient and reduce inequities in health status.

Making the Academic Practical – Introducing a Priority Setting Handbook

(Abstract 0100)

Evelyn Cornelissen1, Bonnie McCoy3, Angela Bate2, Alistair Robson2, Stuart Peacock3, Craig Mitton1, Cam Donaldson2
1University of British Columbia – Okanagan, Canada, 2Newcastle University, United Kingdom, 3B.C. Cancer Research Center, Canada

Decision makers often express a desire for a more structured, evidence-informed priority setting process. In response, we report on an interactive priority setting tool designed to assist decision makers to contextualize evidence-informed decision making and priority setting to their individual settings. Specific tools and support materials are drawn from collective international experience over the past twenty years and are presented in the form of a priority setting handbook.

The purpose of the handbook is to provide a step-by-step guide to healthcare priority setting, with explicit attention to program budgeting, strategic planning, ethical considerations and service re-design. It includes scenarios to deliver key messages in a format geared towards a target audience of decision makers. Tools include: hard-copy and electronic templates of budgets, work and communication plans, process maps, educational materials, decision making criteria and definitions, criteria weighting and scoring tools, and business case templates for service proposals. An interactive web-based tool will provide real-time support and real-life data sets to illustrate key steps. Information about decision support software, public engagement, handling ranked lists, merging service options and managing barriers/facilitators to structured priority setting processes is also provided.

This work advances the application of priority setting tools in decision making practice to support decision makers when facing difficult resource allocation trade-offs. The intent with this is to support healthcare organizations in evolving their own priority setting practice to equitably and efficiently meet growing and changing healthcare demands.