Oral

In order for public health practitioners to bring effective interventions to the broader population, the interventions must be implemented, tested, analyzed, and then incorporated as policy on the local, district and national level. Much has been written about the “research-policy” gap, and the translation of implementation experience and research into policy can be even more challenging in the resource-poor environment of much of the developing world. Ministries of Health are often overburdened and have few human and material resources for carrying out research and lack access to affordable and effective policy tools. The four presenters in this panel each give a particular perspective on how to bridge the “research-policy” gap by incorporating program-driven operations research, use of routine or easily collected data and modeling techniques, and joint planning of implementation and research with Ministries of Health. The examples come from Timor-Leste, Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Session Objectives: 1. Identify effective methods of planning and executing program-driven operations research. 2. Describe affordable and effective policy tools that can be used in resource-poor settings. 3. Recognize the importance of joint planning of implementation and research with Ministries of Health. 4. Describe how Operations Research can be used to strengthen health systems.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing