Less than 5% of papers on the use of research in health policymaking tested interventions to see what worked. But those studies reveal a number of strategies for improvement

Population health policies stand a much better chance of succeeding if they’re informed by research evidence. But what are the best ways of making sure this happens? Danielle Campbell and Gabriel Moore conducted a rapid review of the literature on the subject and found that very few studies actually concerned testing interventions to see whether they worked. Those articles that do report on intervention strategies revealed a number of effective approaches, with recommendations including tailored approaches to presenting research findings to policymakers, interactive seminars or roundtables for communicating evidence, and increasing organisational capacity to use research.