Jun 24 2011
"Research evidence has undoubtedly been crucial in formulating countless global health policies which have saved many millions of lives," but "at the same time, we believe there are several common fallacies about its 'real world' application," Gavin Yamey and Richard Feachem of the Evidence to Policy initiative write in an Evidence-Based Medicine perspective.
They "argu[e] that improving the evidence flow from RCT (randomized controlled trial) to policymaker is necessary but insufficient. We also need to better understand the sociopolitical and cultural influences upon policy development, the complex apparatus of large-scale implementation and the 'real world' impact of such implementation. And we are going to need better tools for the job than the RCT alone" (June 2011).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |