policy making in health is largely thought to be driven by three ‘i's namely ideas, interests and institutions. recent years have seen a shift in approach with increasing reliance being placed on role of evidence for policy making. the present arti­cle ascertains the role of ideas and ideologies in shaping evidence which is used to aid in policy decisions. the article dis­cusses different theor...

background: various decisions have been made on technology application at all levels of the health system in different countries around the world. health technology assessment is considered as one of the best scientific tools at the service of policy- makers. this study attempts to investigate the current challenges of iran’s health technology assessment and provide appropriate strategies to es...

shiffman rightly raises questions about who exercises power in global health, suggesting power is a complex concept, and the way it is exercised is often opaque. power that is not based on financial strength but on knowledge or experience, is difficult to estimate, and yet it may provide the legitimacy to make moral claims on what is, or ought to be, on global health agendas. twenty years ago p...

This article examines the implicit promises of fairness in evidence based medicine (EBM), namely to avoid discrimination through objective processes, and to distribute effective treatments fairly. The relationship between EBM and vulnerable groups (such as those disadvantaged by virtue of poverty, ethnicity, age, gender, mental health problems or similar) is examined. Several aspects of EBM are...

Hard on the heels of evidence-based medicine (EBM) comes evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP). At all levels in healthcare systems there is a hunger for better knowledge to inform policy and practice. Is this yet another of the fashions and fads that continually beset the National Health Service, or does EBPP mark a development that could fundamentally change the way in which health policy...

Background SUPPORT tools consist of 18 articles addressing the health policy-makers so that they can learn how to make evidence-informed health policies. These tools have been particularly recommended for developing countries. The present study tries to explain the process of evidence utilization for developing policy documents in the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) and...

“The good news is that evidence can matter. The bad news is that it often does not.”1 If imitation is the sincerest form of fl attery, the clinicians and clinical epidemiologists who promoted evidence-based medicine in the early 1990s should feel fl attered. Evidence-based medicine now has many imitators: from evidence-based nursing,2 dentistry3 and public health4 through to evidence-based soci...