Communicating health research (65) Q1. What do we mean by Effective communication? (17) Q2. What are the different approaches? (17)

24 September, 2022

Dear Richard,

Thank you for your comments. This highlights the role of collaboration and advocacy in driving policy change.

Revisiting the central question for our discussion - What are the most impactful methods for researchers to communicate their research to policymakers so that the research is seen and applied? - it seems that we can now look at this from at least three angles:

1. Direct communication of a single study from researcher (or research team) to policymakers

2. Communication of a single study through engaging multiple stakeholders

3. Collaboration with other research teams and other stakeholders to pool research evidence and drive advocacy.

I think there are multiple examples of #3 - indeed perhaps this is the most common approach and effective in practice?

However, the spirit of our oriqinal question was "How can a researcher (or research team) communicate their single study to policymakers with more impact?". Can anyone describe a single piece of research that they have done (or know about) and how this was communicated (or not) to policymakers?

How often is there a direct line between a single piece of primary research and policymakers?

Best wishes, Neil

Joint Coordinator, HIFA Communicating health research https://www.hifa.org/projects/new-effective-communication-health-researc...

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HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of the HIFA global health movement (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting on six global forums in four languages in collaboration with WHO. HIFA brings stakeholders together to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK based non-profit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Twitter: @hifa_org neil AT hifa.org