A major obstacle to the progress of the Millennium Development Goals has been the inability of health systems in many low- and middle-income countries to effectively implement evidence-informed interventions. This article discusses the relationships between implementation research and knowledge translation and identifies the role of implementation research in the design and execution of evidenc...

The paper introduces the special issue by linking the International Spinal Cord Injury (InSCI) Community Survey study to the Learning Health System for SCI Initiative (LHS-SCI). The LHS-SCI was designed to respond to the implementation challenge of bringing about policy reform in light of the targeted policy recommendations of World Health Organization's International Perspectives on SCI report...

The minimum unit pricing (MUP) alcohol policy debate has been informed by the Sheffield model, a study which predicts impacts of different alcohol pricing policies. This paper explores the Sheffield model's influences on the policy debate by drawing on 36 semi-structured interviews with policy actors who were involved in the policy debate. Although commissioned by policy makers, the model's inf...

To the Editor In their interesting report, Friedman et al 1 state that " informed consent for blood transfusion is a requirement of the Joint Commission. " This is not correct. The reference they cite in support of this statment 2 includes the comment that " the final measures were recommended by the TAP (Technical Advisory Panel) in November 2010 and submitted to the National Quality Forum (NQ...

This article provides direct estimates of the parameters of spatial utility models of voting using data from the 2008 presidential election. By measuring citizens’ views on issues for which candidates’ stances are known, I estimate voter ideology on the same scale as candidate positions. Using these estimates, I demonstrate that policy exerts a strong influence on vote choice for most voters. W...

Human biospecimens have played a crucial role in scientific and medical advances. Although the ethical and policy issues associated with biospecimen research have long been the subject of scholarly debate, the story of Henrietta Lacks, her family, and the creation of HeLa cells captured the attention of a much broader audience. The story has been a catalyst for policy change, including major re...

Dear Editor: The article by Dr Gavin Andrews on the burden of depression in the July 2008 In Review on the epidemiology of depression intends to inform our psychiatrist colleagues and Canadian policy-makers about the prevalence of depression and its policy implications. Policy-makers need to be informed on the nature of the disorder to better allocate health funds adequately between treatment, ...

Economists have come to play an enormously important role in public policy debates. There use of their expertise to effectively act as priests, telling the less informed public what the impact of their various policy proposals will be on the economy’s future performance. Economists often tell the public that its preferred policy path will not have the intended effect, and may actually lead to o...

Recent mass shootings have prompted a national dialogue around mental illness and gun policy. To advance an evidence-informed policy agenda on this controversial issue, we formed a consortium of national gun violence prevention and mental health experts. The consortium agreed on a guiding principle for future policy recommendations: restricting firearm access on the basis of certain dangerous b...

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