Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology, LMU Munich, Elisabeth-Winterhalter-Weg 6, 81377, Munich, Germany.
Pettenkofer School of Public Health, Munich, Germany.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2021 Jan 18;19(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s12961-020-00675-w.
The Collaboration for Evidence-based Healthcare and Public Health in Africa (CEBHA+) is a research consortium concerned with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases. CEBHA+ seeks to engage policymakers and practitioners throughout the research process in order to build lasting relationships, enhance evidence uptake, and create long-term capacity among partner institutions in Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda in collaboration with two German universities. This integrated knowledge translation (IKT) approach includes the formal development, implementation and evaluation of country specific IKT strategies.
We have conceptualised the CEBHA+ IKT approach as a complex intervention in a complex system. We will employ a comparative case study (CCS) design and mixed methods to facilitate an in-depth evaluation. We will use quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, quarterly updates, and a policy document analysis to capture the process and outcomes of IKT across the African CEBHA+ partner sites. We will conduct an early stage (early 2020) and a late-stage evaluation (early 2022), triangulate the data collected with various methods at each site and subsequently compare our findings across the five sites.
Evaluating a complex intervention such as the CEBHA+ IKT approach is complicated, even more so when undertaken across five diverse countries. Despite conceptual, methodological and practical challenges, our comparative case study addresses important evidence gaps: While involving decision-makers in the research process is gaining traction worldwide, we still know very little regarding (i) whether this approach really makes a difference to evidence uptake, (ii) the mechanisms that make IKT successful, and (iii) relevant differences across socio-cultural contexts. The evaluation described here is intended to provide relevant insights on all of these aspects, notably in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is expected to contribute to the science of IKT overall.
促进非洲循证卫生保健和公共卫生合作组织（CEBHA+）是一个关注非传染性疾病预防、诊断和治疗的研究联盟。CEBHA+ 力求在整个研究过程中让政策制定者和实践者参与进来，以建立持久的关系、增强证据的采用，并在与两所德国大学合作的基础上，在埃塞俄比亚、马拉维、卢旺达、南非和乌干达的合作伙伴机构中建立长期能力。这种综合知识转化（IKT）方法包括制定、实施和评估国家特定的 IKT 战略。
我们将 CEBHA+IKT 方法视为复杂系统中的复杂干预措施。我们将采用比较案例研究（CCS）设计和混合方法来促进深入评估。我们将使用定量调查、定性访谈、季度更新和政策文件分析来捕捉非洲 CEBHA+合作伙伴站点的 IKT 过程和结果。我们将进行早期（2020 年初）和晚期（2022 年初）评估，对每个站点使用各种方法收集的数据进行三角分析，然后在五个站点之间比较我们的发现。
评估 CEBHA+IKT 方法等复杂干预措施很复杂，在五个不同国家进行时更是如此。尽管存在概念、方法和实践方面的挑战，但我们的比较案例研究解决了重要的证据差距：虽然让决策者参与研究过程在全球范围内得到了关注，但我们仍然对以下方面知之甚少：（i）这种方法是否真的对证据的采用有影响，（ii）使 IKT 成功的机制，以及（iii）跨社会文化背景的相关差异。这里描述的评估旨在提供所有这些方面的相关见解，特别是在撒哈拉以南非洲国家，并有望对 IKT 整体科学做出贡献。
