Public health policy-making for hearing loss: stakeholders' evaluation of a novel eHealth tool.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Dritsakis G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7596974 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Public health policy-making for hearing loss: stakeholders' evaluation of a novel eHealth tool.
Dritsakis Giorgos G Trenkova Lyubov L Śliwińska-Kowalska Mariola M Brdarić Dario D Pontoppidan Niels Henrik NH Katrakazas Panagiotis P Bamiou Doris-Eva DE
Health research policy and systems 20201029 1
<h4>Background</h4>Hearing loss (HL) affects 466 million people of all ages worldwide, with a rapidly increasing prevalence, and therefore requires appropriate public health policies. Multi-disciplinary approaches that make use of eHealth services can build the evidence to influence public policy. The European Union-funded project EVOTION developed a platform that is fed with real-time data from hearing aids, a smartphone, and additional clinical data and makes public health policy recommendatio ...[more]
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Project description:INTRODUCTION:The holistic management of hearing loss (HL) requires an understanding of factors that predict hearing aid (HA) use and benefit beyond the acoustics of listening environments. Although several predictors have been identified, no study has explored the role of audiological, cognitive, behavioural and physiological data nor has any study collected real-time HA data. This study will collect 'big data', including retrospective HA logging data, prospective clinical data and real-time data via smart HAs, a mobile application and biosensors. The main objective is to enable the validation of the EVOTION platform as a public health policy-making tool for HL. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:This will be a big data international multicentre study consisting of retrospective and prospective data collection. Existing data from approximately 35?000?HA users will be extracted from clinical repositories in the UK and Denmark. For the prospective data collection, 1260?HA candidates will be recruited across four clinics in the UK and Greece. Participants will complete a battery of audiological and other assessments (measures of patient-reported HA benefit, mood, cognition, quality of life). Patients will be offered smart HAs and a mobile phone application and a subset will also be given wearable biosensors, to enable the collection of dynamic real-life HA usage data. Big data analytics will be used to detect correlations between contextualised HA usage and effectiveness, and different factors and comorbidities affecting HL, with a view to informing public health decision-making. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:Ethical approval was received from the London South East Research Ethics Committee (17/LO/0789), the Hippokrateion Hospital Ethics Committee (1847) and the Athens Medical Center's Ethics Committee (KM140670). Results will be disseminated through national and international events in Greece and the UK, scientific journals, newsletters, magazines and social media. Target audiences include HA users, clinicians, policy-makers and the general public. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:NCT03316287; Pre-results.
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Project description:Ideally, public health policies are formulated from scientific data; however, policy-specific data are often unavailable. Big data can generate ecologically-valid, high-quality scientific evidence, and therefore has the potential to change how public health policies are formulated. Here, we discuss the use of big data for developing evidence-based hearing health policies, using data collected and analyzed with a research prototype of a data repository known as EVOTION (EVidence-based management of hearing impairments: public health pOlicy-making based on fusing big data analytics and simulaTION), to illustrate our points. Data in the repository consist of audiometric clinical data, prospective real-world data collected from hearing aids and an app, and responses to questionnaires collected for research purposes. To date, we have used the platform and a synthetic dataset to model the estimated risk of noise-induced hearing loss and have shown novel evidence of ways in which external factors influence hearing aid usage patterns. We contend that this research prototype data repository illustrates the value of using big data for policy-making by providing high-quality evidence that could be used to formulate and evaluate the impact of hearing health care policies.
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Project description:BackgroundEnsuring health policies are informed by evidence still remains a challenge despite efforts devoted to this aim. Several tools and approaches aimed at fostering evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) have been developed, yet there is a lack of availability of indicators specifically devoted to assess and support EIPM. The present study aims to overcome this by building a set of measurable indicators for EIPM intended to infer if and to what extent health-related policies are, or are expected to be, evidence-informed for the purposes of policy planning as well as formative and summative evaluations.MethodsThe indicators for EIPM were developed and validated at international level by means of a two-round internet-based Delphi study conducted within the European project 'REsearch into POlicy to enhance Physical Activity' (REPOPA). A total of 82 researchers and policy-makers from the six European countries (Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, the United Kingdom) involved in the project and international organisations were asked to evaluate the relevance and feasibility of an initial set of 23 indicators developed by REPOPA researchers on the basis of literature and knowledge gathered from the previous phases of the project, and to propose new indicators.ResultsThe first Delphi round led to the validation of 14 initial indicators and to the development of 8 additional indicators based on panellists' suggestions; the second round led to the validation of a further 11 indicators, including 6 proposed by panellists, and to the rejection of 6 indicators. A total of 25 indicators were validated, covering EIPM issues related to human resources, documentation, participation and monitoring, and stressing different levels of knowledge exchange and involvement of researchers and other stakeholders in policy development and evaluation.ConclusionThe study overcame the lack of availability of indicators to assess if and to what extent policies are realised in an evidence-informed manner thanks to the active contribution of researchers and policy-makers. These indicators are intended to become a shared resource usable by policy-makers, researchers and other stakeholders, with a crucial impact on fostering the development of policies informed by evidence.
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Project description:BackgroundEngaged scholarship includes the coproduction and use of research by partnerships that blend research, policy and/or practice perspectives. This way of doing research attempts to bridge-the-gap between knowledge and its application. Recent reviews have described practices that support engagement and involve the community in research and patients in healthcare but there is less known about how to engage individuals working to inform public policy.Aims and objectivesThe purpose of this research was to articulate the actions and context that support the coproduction and use of research to inform public policy decisions. The study focuses on partnerships between researchers and stakeholders working in public policy across different levels and sectors of government.MethodsA scoping review methodology was used. Relevant articles were identified from six electronic bibliographic databases of peer-reviewed literature.FindingsA total of 9904 articles were screened and 375 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. The included 11 studies were from research partnerships internationally and described actions and contextual factors contributing to the coproduction and use of research to inform public policy. Key actions included facilitating frequent interactions with public policy stakeholders, joint planning for research, and collaboration to execute data collection and analysis. Contextual factors included clarity in responsibilities, prior relationships, and mutual respect for partner priorities and perspectives.ConclusionsKey actions and contextual factors were identified in this review and warrant further study to strengthen research-policy partnerships and their outcomes.
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