Marie Delnord, F Tille, L A Abboud, D Ivankovic, H Van Oyen
European Journal of Public Health, Volume 30, Issue 4, August 2020, Pages 648–659, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckz164
Abstract
BACKGROUND
National health information (HI) systems provide data on population health, the determinants of health and health system performance within countries. The evaluation of these systems has traditionally focused on statistical practices and procedures, and not on data use or reuse for policy and practice. This limits the capacity to assess the impact of HI systems on healthcare provision, management and policy-making. On the other hand, the field of Knowledge Translation (KT) has developed frameworks to guide evidence into practice.
METHODS
A scoping review of the KT literature to identify the essential mechanisms and determinants of KT that could help monitor the impact of HI systems.
RESULTS
We examined 79 publications and we identified over 100 different KT frameworks but none of these were focused on HI systems per se. There were specific recommendations on disseminating evidence to stakeholders at the institutional and organizational level, and on sustaining the use of evidence in practice and the broader community setting.
CONCLUSIONS
We developed a new model, the HI-Impact framework, in which four domains are essential for mapping the impact of national HI systems: (i) HI Evidence Quality, (ii) HI System Responsiveness, (iii) Stakeholder Engagement and (iv) Knowledge Integration. A comprehensive impact assessment of HI systems requires addressing the use of HI in public health decision-making, health service delivery and in other sectors which might have not been considered previously. Monitoring Stakeholder Engagement and Knowledge Integration certifies that the use of HI in all policies is an explicit point of assessment.
Read the full article in European Journal of Public Health.
