Drug and Natural Health Product Data Collection and Curation in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

This study aimed to develop an efficient data collection and curation process for all drugs and natural health products (NHPs) used by participants to the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). The three-step sequential process consisted of (a) mapping drug inputs collected through the CLSA to the Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD), (b) algorithm recoding of unmapped drug and NHP inputs, and (c) manual recoding of unmapped drug and NHP inputs. Among the 30,097 CLSA comprehensive cohort participants, 26,000 (86.

Evaluation of an online knowledge translation intervention to promote cancer risk reduction behaviours: findings from a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Many cancers are preventable through lifestyle modification; however, few adults engage in behaviors that are in line with cancer prevention guidelines. This may be partly due to the mixed messages on effective cancer prevention strategies in popular media. The goal of the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal (the Portal) is to increase access to trustworthy health information.

A mixed methods evaluation of capturing and sharing practitioner experience for improving local tobacco control strategies.

Objective: Practitioner experience is one type of evidence that is used in public health planning and action. Yet, methods for capturing and sharing experience are under-developed. We evaluated the reach, uptake and use of an example of capturing and sharing practitioner experience from tobacco control known as documentation of practice (DoP) reports.

Knowledge translation for realist reviews: a participatory approach for a review on scaling up complex interventions.

Background: Knowledge syntheses that use a realist methodology are gaining popularity. Yet, there are few reports in the literature that describe how results are summarised, shared and used. This paper aims to inform knowledge translation (KT) for realist reviews by describing the process of developing a KT strategy for a review on pathways for scaling up complex public health interventions.

Effectively engaging stakeholders and the public in developing violence prevention messages.

Background: Preventing family violence requires that stakeholders and the broader public be involved in developing evidence-based violence prevention strategies. However, gaps exist in between what we know (knowledge), what we do (action), and the structures supporting practice (policy).

Discussion: We discuss the broad challenge of mobilizing knowledge-for-action in family violence, with a primary focus on the issue of how stakeholders and the public can be effectively engaged when developing and communicating evidence-based violence prevention messages.

Moving towards a new vision: implementation of a public health policy intervention.

Background: Public health systems in Canada have undergone significant policy renewal over the last decade in response to threats to the public's health, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome. There is limited research on how public health policies have been implemented or what has influenced their implementation. This paper explores policy implementation in two exemplar public health programs -chronic disease prevention and sexually-transmitted infection prevention - in Ontario, Canada.

Moving knowledge about family violence into public health policy and practice: a mixed method study of a deliberative dialogue.

Background: There is a need to understand scientific evidence in light of the context within which it will be used. Deliberative dialogues are a promising strategy that can be used to meet this evidence interpretation challenge.

Methods: We evaluated a deliberative dialogue held by a transnational violence prevention network.

Assessing the Spread and Uptake of a Framework for Introducing and Evaluating Advanced Practice Nursing Roles.

Background: Health system researchers must ensure that the products of their work meet the needs of various stakeholder groups (e.g., patients, practitioners, and policy makers).

Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) in health care: a scoping review.

Background: Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) refers to collaboration between researchers and decision-makers. While advocated as an approach for enhancing the relevance and use of research, IKT is challenging and inconsistently applied. This study sought to inform future IKT practice and research by synthesizing studies that empirically evaluated IKT and identifying knowledge gaps.

An exploratory analysis of the nature of informal knowledge underlying theories of planned action used for public health oriented knowledge translation.

Background: Informal knowledge is used in public health practice to make sense of research findings. Although knowledge translation theories highlight the importance of informal knowledge, it is not clear to what extent the same literature provides guidance in terms of how to use it in practice. The objective of this study was to address this gap by exploring what planned action theories suggest in terms of using three types of informal knowledge: local, experiential and expert.

Evidence-informed health policy making in Canada: past, present, and future.

Evidence-informed health policy making (EIHP) is becoming a necessary means to achieving health system reform. Although Canada has a rich and well documented history in the field of evidence-based medicine, a concerted effort to capture Canada's efforts to support EIHP in particular has yet to be realized. This paper reports on the development of EIHP in Canada, including promising approaches being used to support the use of evidence in policy making about complex health systems issues.

Communities of practice for supporting health systems change: a missed opportunity.

Background: Communities of practice (CoPs) have been used in the health sector to support professional practice change. However, little is known about how CoPs might be used to influence a system that requires change at and across various levels (i.e.

Developing and refining the methods for a 'one-stop shop' for research evidence about health systems.

Background: Policymakers, stakeholders and researchers have not been able to find research evidence about health systems using an easily understood taxonomy of topics, know when they have conducted a comprehensive search of the many types of research evidence relevant to them, or rapidly identify decision-relevant information in their search results.

Methods: To address these gaps, we developed an approach to building a 'one-stop shop' for research evidence about health systems. We developed a taxonomy of health system topics and iteratively refined it by drawing on existing categorization schemes and by using it to categorize progressively larger bundles of research evidence.

Evaluating deliberative dialogues focussed on healthy public policy.

Background: Deliberative dialogues have recently captured attention in the public health policy arena because they have the potential to address several key factors that influence the use of research evidence in policymaking. We conducted an evaluation of three deliberative dialogues convened in Canada by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy in order to learn more about deliberative dialogues focussed on healthy public policy.

Methods: The evaluation included a formative assessment of participants' views about and experiences with ten key design features of the dialogues, and a summative assessment of participants' intention to use research evidence of the type that was discussed at the dialogue.

A systematic review of the cost-effectiveness of nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists: what is the quality of the evidence?

Background. Improved quality of care and control of healthcare costs are important factors influencing decisions to implement nurse practitioner (NP) and clinical nurse specialist (CNS) roles. Objective.

Deliberative dialogues as a strategy for system-level knowledge translation and exchange.

We undertook a case study in order to explore deliberative dialogue as a system-level knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategy and to describe the design features and intended effects of this dialogue. Our data included observations made during the dialogue, evaluations completed by dialogue participants and interviews. We placed these data in the context of our broader experience.

Mi??ing data: should we c?re?

Across all fields of research, the issue of missing data arises. In most studies, surveys, or experiments, there are instances of nonresponse that need to be appropriately dealt with to conduct reasonable statistical analyses. There are several types of missing data as well as ways to deal with incomplete data sets.

Deliberative dialogues as a mechanism for knowledge translation and exchange in health systems decision-making.

Models that describe the key features and intended effects of specific knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) interventions are much less prominent than models that provide a more general understanding of KTE. Our aim was to develop a model in order to describe the key features and intended effects of deliberative dialogues used as a KTE strategy and to understand how deliberative dialogues can support evidence-informed policymaking. By using critical interpretive synthesis, we identified 17 papers representing four fields of enquiry and integrated our findings into a model.

Influence of an apical negative pressure irrigation system on bacterial elimination during endodontic therapy: a prospective randomized clinical study.

Introduction: Recent in vitro studies that use an apical negative pressure irrigation system, EndoVac, have demonstrated promising results in the production of debris-free root canals, while also preventing potential extrusion of irrigants into the periapical region. We conducted a randomized, controlled, prospective clinical study to determine whether the use of EndoVac irrigation (EndoVac group) was more efficient compared with standard needle irrigation (control group) in obtaining canals from which microbes could not be cultivated.

Methods: Routine endodontic therapy was performed in 48 patients with necrotic, single-rooted, single-canal teeth.

Reliability of a tool for measuring theory of planned behaviour constructs for use in evaluating research use in policymaking.

Background: Although measures of knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) effectiveness based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) have been used among patients and providers, no measure has been developed for use among health system policymakers and stakeholders. A tool that measures the intention to use research evidence in policymaking could assist researchers in evaluating the effectiveness of KTE strategies that aim to support evidence-informed health system decision-making. Therefore, we developed a 15-item tool to measure four TPB constructs (intention, attitude, subjective norm and perceived control) and assessed its face validity through key informant interviews.

SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health Policymaking (STP) 7: Finding systematic reviews.

This article is part of a series written for people responsible for making decisions about health policies and programmes and for those who support these decision makers. Systematic reviews are increasingly seen as a key source of information in policymaking, particularly in terms of assisting with descriptions of the impacts of options. Relative to single studies they offer a number of advantages related to understanding impacts and are also seen as a key source of information for clarifying problems and providing complementary perspectives on options.

SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health Policymaking (STP) 14: Organising and using policy dialogues to support evidence-informed policymaking.

This article is part of a series written for people responsible for making decisions about health policies and programmes and for those who support these decision makers. Policy dialogues allow research evidence to be considered together with the views, experiences and tacit knowledge of those who will be involved in, or affected by, future decisions about a high-priority issue. Increasing interest in the use of policy dialogues has been fuelled by a number of factors: 1.