HIFA Colleagues
Following Neil’s post I have now watched the recording of the webinar WHO “Together for Science and Health” and agree that this looks a promising opportunity for possible HIFA/WHO collaboration.
The references by Dr Sylvie Briand to “the new information ecosystem” are not a million miles from HIFA’s “evidence ecosystem” and it is also encouraging that that she noted that one of the three strands of the initiative was “science and communication”. Some of the points made by the other speakers struck a chord too – particularly the references to the need that “evidence must reach people, must make sense in the context of their lives , and must be trusted”. A pretty good fit surely with health information being accessible, relevant and reliable.
I thought it interesting that several other speakers highlighted the issue of building trust -–“trust cannot simply be communicated” requiring “not just telling people what the evidence says but listening, engaging and building dialogue with people around evidence”. Are we doing enough in HIFA to address the challenge of building trust in reliable information?
So far at least, this initiative looks to have mostly broad brush aims. Hopefully as it develops it will be operationalised with some more focused objectives. For example, as in Neil’s note, by this initiative declaring that WHO is championing universal access to reliable healthcare information.
Maybe HIFA could collaborate with WHO to help identify a set (not too many!) of other more specific objectives for this initiative, especially perhaps ones related to strengthening the “global evidence ecosystem” ? Views from Forum members on how the initiative could most usefully develop could be a good starting point.
Best wishes
Geoff
HIFA profile: Geoff Royston is an independent health analyst and researcher, former Head of Strategic Analysis and Operational Research in the Department of Health for England, and a past President of the UK Operational Research Society.
His work has focused on informing the design, implementation and evaluation of policies and programmes in health and social care, and on fostering the capabilities of others to work in these areas. Associated activities have included modelling for understanding the performance of complex systems, analysis and communication of risk, and horizon scanning and futures thinking. He has also worked on information and communication technology in the health sector, notably in leading the design and national launch of the telephone and online health information and advice service NHS Direct (now NHS111). He has served on both scientific and medical UK Research Council panels, and as an impact assessor for the UK higher education Research Excellence Framework. He has been a member of the editorial board for the journal Health Care Management Science and was guest editor for a special issue on global health. He has been a consultant for the World Health Organisation, and a long-standing member of the EURO Working Group on Operational Research Applied to Health Services.
He is a member of the main HIFA Steering Group and a number of the HIFA working groups.
http://www.hifa.org/support/members/geoff geoff.royston AT gmail.com