Indicators to evaluate organisational knowledge brokers: a scoping review

• Published in: Health research policy and systems Vol. 18; no. 1; p. 93
• Main Authors: Scarlett, Julia, Forsberg, Birger C, Biermann, Olivia, Kuchenmüller, Tanja, El-Khatib, Ziad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 24-08-2020; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Actors; Analysis; Brokers; Capacity-building; Collaboration; Decision making; Domains; Evaluation; Global health; Health care policy; Health policy; Health research; Indicators; Infrastructure; Institutionalization; Intervention; Knowledge; Knowledge translation; Medical libraries; Medical research; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Monitoring instruments; Policy making; Programme evaluation; Public health; Review; Reviews; Sustainable development; Verification; World health; Europe; Capacity-building; Policy-making; Programme evaluation; Indicators; Knowledge translation
• ISSN: 1478-4505; 1478-4505
• DOI: 10.1186/s12961-020-00607-8

Knowledge translation (KT) is currently endorsed by global health policy actors as a means to improve outcomes by institutionalising evidence-informed policy-making. Organisational knowledge brokers, comprised of researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders, are increasingly being used to undertake and promote KT at all levels of health policy-making, though few resources exist to guide the evaluation of these efforts. Using a scoping review methodology, we identified, synthesised and assessed indicators that have been used to evaluate KT infrastructure and capacity-building activities in a health policy context in order to inform the evaluation of organisational knowledge brokers.
A scoping review methodology was used. This included the search of Medline, Global Health and the WHO Library databases for studies regarding the evaluation of KT infrastructure and capacity-building activities between health research and policy, published in English from 2005 to 2016. Data on study characteristics, outputs and outcomes measured, related indicators, mode of verification, duration and/or frequency of collection, indicator methods, KT model, and targeted capacity level were extracted and charted for analysis.
A total of 1073 unique articles were obtained and 176 articles were qualified to be screened in full-text; 32 articles were included in the analysis. Of a total 213 indicators extracted, we identified 174 (174/213; 81.7%) indicators to evaluate the KT infrastructure and capacity-building that have been developed using methods beyond expert opinion. Four validated instruments were identified. The 174 indicators are presented in 8 domains based on an adaptation of the domains of the Lavis et al. framework of linking research to action - general climate, production of research, push efforts, pull efforts, exchange efforts, integrated efforts, evaluation and capacity-building.
This review presents a total of 174 method-based indicators to evaluate KT infrastructure and capacity-building. The presented indicators can be used or adapted globally by organisational knowledge brokers and other stakeholders in their monitoring and evaluation work.