Getting the word out to public health: Sharing the results of the Partnerships for Health Systems Improvement project

The Health Evidence team partnered with three Ontario health departments as part of a CIHR-funded 'Partnerships for Health System Improvement' (PHSI) project (PHE-101867). Through that project, we worked collaboratively with public health department partners to develop individual knowledge and skills and to enhance capacity for and organizational cultures that are conducive to evidence-informed decision making (EIDM). As we now begin our final data collection and in-depth analysis on that project, we would like to focus on enhancing our dissemination strategies to-date (e.g. conference presentations, one journal article) by being more comprehensive and reaching a broader audience. The results that we intend to share are as much about the intervention as they are about how to effectively participate in a collaborative knowledge-creator/knowledge-user partnership. These enhanced dissemination efforts require additional funds that are the focus of this proposal. Specifically, we are seeking funding from this competition in order to: first, conduct a meeting with the research team and key health department staff to reflect on overall findings and generate detailed paper outlines and dissemination strategies; secondly, create and publish a series of papers with BioMed Central Public Health, as well as a debate-style paper for Implementation Science; and finally, disseminate this series of papers, highlighting the project's results, in a webinar, targeting Public Health decision-makers. Only through active dissemination can we expect to enter into the dialogue around partnership best practices and public health policy and decision making, with the ultimate goal of strengthening the public health system as a whole.