Our training

The McMaster Health Forum is now offering several options for online and in-person training in finding and using research for health system policymakers and stakeholders, as well as researchers, journalists, students and citizens at large.

The training program is designed as a portfolio of offerings that include a variety of online tutorials (six minutes and 20 minutes in length), real-time online facilitated training, as well as in-person training workshops (3.5 hours, full-day, two day, and full week).

The program builds on the experience of Forum Director John Lavis in conducting training workshops with health system policymakers and stakeholders in Ontario (provincial government, Ontario Medical Association and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario), Canada (other provinces, cross-provincial, and national), and internationally (countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and WHO regional offices and headquarters).

Training opportunities

We are currently offering three types of training:

1. a six-minute video tutorial about Health Systems Evidence (online and free); and
2. a series of three video tutorials on Finding and Using Research Evidence (online and free)
3. interactive facilitated training (online or in-person)

The tutorials are complemented by a series of tools and resources:

• a list of SUPPORT tools for evidence-informed policymaking (available in French as outils du project SUPPORT pour l’élaboration des politiques de santé éclairees par les données probantes), which provides references and URLs to the 18 articles produced as part of this series;
• a summary sheet about finding and using research evidence (available in French as trouver et utiliser des données probantes issues de la recherche); and
• a four-page summary sheet about Health Systems Evidence (available in French as résumé de quatre pages de Health Systems Evidence).

All of these documents are available for download from both the McMaster Health Forum website and the Health Systems Evidence website.

Health Systems Evidence video tutorial (online - free)

The tutorial developed by the McMaster Health Forum was launched in December 2011. It is currently available in English and French and will soon be made available in the other languages in which Health Systems Evidence is available (Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish).

The video tutorial describes how to make the best use of the features of Health Systems Evidence, to assist users to rapidly identify syntheses of the best available research on a particular health system topic, as well as economic evaluations, health system reforms and descriptions of health systems.

To access the video, go to Health Systems Evidence or to the McMaster Health Forum YouTube channel for the introductory video tutorial about Health Systems Evidence (available in French as tutoriel vidéo d'introduction à Health Systems Evidence).

Finding and Using Research Evidence – A three-part video tutorial series (online - free)

The three tutorials are designed to help health system policymakers and stakeholders learn about and become more aware of tools and resources available to support their use of research evidence. The series can be accessed for free, however, the interactive facilitated training (described below) is provided at cost.

The objectives of the video tutorial series are to:

• enhance users’ awareness about tools and resources available to health system policymakers and stakeholders in order to support their use of research evidence;
• enhance users’ skills in acquiring, assessing, adapting and applying research evidence; and
• identify what users’ own units/departments and their organization as a whole can do to better support the use of research evidence in health systems policymaking

The video tutorial series is structured around three core sets of questions related to clarifying a problem, framing options to address the problem and bringing about change. The tutorials are designed to help policymakers and stakeholders work through the types of questions that typically arise in decision-making, and to identify when, where and how to find and use research evidence to answer these questions.

The video tutorials are currently available in English (with availability in other languages coming soon) and can be viewed as interactive presentations (intended for most devices and smartphones except for iPhones and iPads), or in video format (intended for iPhone/iPad users and for viewers using low-bandwidth internet connections.)

To view the video tutorials, visit www.healthsystemsevidence.org.

Interactive facilitated training on Finding and Using Research Evidence (in-person or online)

Interested groups and organizations can request either in-person or real-time online facilitated sessions with the Forum Director and/or Assistant Director. The in-person interactive sessions can be provided as 3.5 hour, full-day, two day, and full week sessions. Participants will learn how to find the best available research and the steps involved in writing an effective evidence brief, through live demonstrations and ‘hands-on’ sessions using a health systems topic of their choosing, or by drawing on one or more scenarios provided by the facilitators.

For more information about scheduling and pricing, please contact the McMaster Health Forum at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Acknowledgements

Both the six-minute Health Systems Evidence video tutorial, and the series of three video tutorials about Finding and Using Research Evidence have been prepared with support from Knowledge Translation Canada, a national research network funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant number 87776).