Reflection on the end-of-grant Policy Research Roundtable by Brenda Andreas
On October 29-30 2024, IHSPR and partners on the Policy Research for Health System Transformation program hosted an end-of-grant Policy Research Roundtable to convene the 60 policy research teams and celebrate their grant journeys, showcase their research and evidence-informed policy implications [ PDF (4.2 MB) - external link ], and foster relationship building and knowledge mobilization. The policy research teams comprised researchers, policy makers, and people with lived/living experience that worked together to tackle high-priority system challenges, including the health workforce, primary health care, integrated care, long-term care, and more. The roundtable featured an opening panel on evidence-informed primary health care transformation, presentations by the 60 policy research teams and cross-team knowledge mobilization and synthesis project, and a closing fireside chat with policy leaders who shared insights on maximizing the value and impact of research for policy. Key themes emerged around the importance of building relationships, integrating diverse perspectives, and fostering equity in health policy development.
Brenda Andreas, a community member and IHSPR Institute Advisory Board member and panelist at the roundtable, reflects on the event and shares her takeaways. Andreas highlights that policy transformation is more than just outcomes; it’s about experiences and relationships that shape lasting change.
Policy Research for Health System Transformation
“Nothing about me without me.”
With sixty teams and guests in their field who shared their wisdom, we ended two days of Roundtable meetings to celebrate and share the successes and challenges faced by the Teams on their grant journey.
And we ask ourselves; What were the deliverables? What were the outcomes? We also asked each Team to share their experiences. As we each reflect in our own way, these are my takeaways.
Who makes health policy? Who implements health policy? How are health policy initiatives shared? The purpose of the grant was to have a health policy researcher engage with a policy maker and a person with lived/living experience. A lot can happen when you bring together the culture of a health system and the culture of academic research, and then add a patient to the mix. This is where robust conversation gives pause to the different perspectives of the team and to incorporating the uniqueness of the cultures within the experience. Understanding diversity of thoughts and experiences is based on the cultures, and until we come together to understand these differences, we challenge ourselves to find a pathway to move forward.
Space was co-created in our two days of deliberations where all the Teams could learn and grow from the collective impact of the challenges and successes of the Teams. As important as the policy briefs [ PDF (4.2 MB) - external link ] each team produced were, the most important takeaway was their experience. Thinking about the relationships among the team and to giving consideration to what mattered to the other team members.
We need to ask; did we include those community members who will be impacted by the policy? Is the policy top down, bottom up, or both top-down and bottom up? Where, when, and how where patients and community members involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the policy? What structures and mechanisms were used to engage relevant interest holders? What are the values, and how did we co-design and co-build relationships? Part of diversity is the use of language. Many Teams use language that is particular to how they work collaboratively. Not understanding the language makes it difficult to participate.
When it comes to policy: How have we really asked the interest holders, “what matters to you?” Have we asked this same question of the front-line providers?
Policy impacts all of us but not all of us have a say in how policy is designed, implemented, or evaluated. Health systems are complex, and all the Teams took away the need to understand the complexity of policy, the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and how the importance of trusting relationships need to be embedded in all health system policy to facilitate health system transformation.
It is not always about deliverables and outcomes. It’s about experiences. It’s about relationships.
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