The article, How Can We Support the Use of Systematic Reviews in Policymaking? Talks about how the landscape has changed for policy makers, why systematic reviews* are important for policy makers and how to support the use of reviews.

Summary points:

• Policy makers need many types of systematic reviews synthesized and packaged for them, and the use of this evidence supported in multiple complementary ways.
• Policy makers and stakeholders need many types of systematic reviews, for example reviews of qualitative studies to help understand alternative frameworks and to appreciate other perspectives.
• Policy makers now have access to many review derived products eg summaries and overviews of systematic reviews and questions and insights to address the problem with implementation strategies.
• A range of activities are being undertaken to support the use of reviews and review-derived products in policymaking, all of which warrant rigorous evaluation.
• Future challenges include: (1) examining whether and when any apparent duplication of efforts occurs in the production of review-derived products at the international level; and (2) scaling up activities that are found to be effective in supporting the use of reviews and review-derived products in policymaking.

Title: Author: John Lavis Year: 2009

*A systematic review is a literature review that aims to provide a comprehensive summary of literature to a research question. It focuses on a question that is trying to identify, assess and synthesize all research evidence relevant to that question.