Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/who-global-research-agenda-knowledge-tr... ]
Having reviewed the WHO document, I am not particularly concerned about the definition of the evidence ecosystem, but I am disappointed with the narrow understanding of "knowledge translation" - and with the definitions offered of such terms as "knowledge".
In particular, there is no mention of public media - both analogue newspapers, radio, and television, and digital versions/social media - for example, the word "internet" does not appear once) in the knowledge translation process. And yet, research knowledge goes from researchers to policy makers through journal articles, policy briefs (of the EvipNet kind) - very largely and through the media.
My guess is that the media get more knowledge through to policy makers - and hence into policies and ultimately practice) - than all the rest. I really don't see how one can leave out the media in discussions of knowledge translation.
As to "knowledge", WHO's definition used to demand two things: 1) that it was action-oriented: knowledge takes information and applies it; and 2) human mediation: knowledge implies a human applying the best information to achieve specific results. Both of these are missing from the definition offered in this publication.
These are not small defects!
Chris
Chris Zielinski
Centre for Global Health, University of Winchester, UK and
President, World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
Blogs; http://ziggytheblue.wordpress.com and http://ziggytheblue.tumblr.com
Publications: http://www.researchgate.net and https://winchester.academia.edu/ChrisZielinski/
HIFA profile: Chris Zielinski: As a Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at the Centre for Global Health, University of Winchester, Chris leads the Partnerships in Health Information (Phi) programme, which supports knowledge development and brokers healthcare information exchanges of all kinds. He is President of the World Association of Medical Editors. Chris has held senior positions in publishing and knowledge management with WHO in Brazzaville, Geneva, Cairo and New Delhi, with FAO in Rome, ILO in Geneva, and UNIDO in Vienna. He served on WHO's Ethical Review Committee, and was an originator of the African Health Observatory. He also spent three years in London as Chief Executive of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society. Chris has been a director of the UK Copyright Licensing Agency, Educational Recording Agency, and International Association of Audiovisual Writers and Directors. He has served on the boards of several NGOs and ethics groupings (information and computer ethics and bioethics). chris AT chriszielinski.com. His publications are at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris-Zielinski and https://winchester.academia.edu/ChrisZielinski/ and his blogs are http://ziggytheblue.wordrpress.com and https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ziggytheblue