Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

The Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS) engages stakeholders in qualitative and quantitative research aimed at improving health services for women with HIV. Although participatory approaches in general improve research relevance, moving beyond knowledge creation to co-design of solutions and recommendations requires specific techniques. Deliberative dialogue is a strategy for engaging stakeholders like patients and service providers in identifying evidence-based recommendations that are acceptable and feasible in the local context. Central to the method is that lived experience is an expertise and the approach prioritises this internal expertise over outside expertise. Deliberative dialogue convenes stakeholders to consider evidence and one another's views of the evidence. A moderator asks deliberants to identify common values, to confront difficult decisions and trade offs, and to generate recommendations or directions for action. This PhD project engages patients and providers in deliberative dialogue of qualitative and quantitative research findings, asking them to recommend improvements in health services for women with HIV. Engagement of service providers and their managers in the knowledge exchange should facilitate early adoption of these recommendations. While suitable for local implementation, the contextualized solutions bring challenges and uncertainties, not least regarding the relevance of the solutions in other settings. Key measures of success include whether and how the recommendations get acted upon, and whether that improves services for the women with HIV.