Grant: Knowledge Synthesis Grant

The use of storytelling and arts-based approaches for communication and teaching tools have been gaining appeal in healthcare. Storytelling and arts-based approaches are powerful, ancient forms of sharing information and they have the ability to engage with multiple audience to build awareness and foster change. It is established that traditional approaches, such as standard health information sheets to share health information and complex research-based knowledge with healthcare consumers and other audiences are largely ineffective. At the same time, there is unprecedented demand for consumer-friendly, research-based, reliable health information. Effective healthcare delivery and consumer satisfaction with healthcare delivery are dependent on approaches to effectively communicate and transfer information and research among different audiences, including health care consumers, health care professionals, researchers, policy makers. As a result, a better understanding of novel approaches to translate knowledge is urgently needed. In order to effectively utilize storytelling and arts-based approaches to communicate with healthcare consumers and other audiences including decision makers, a systematic review of the literature is needed to understand how these approaches have previously been used in healthcare. The results from our research will serve as a 'state-of-the science' on the use of these approaches in health and will allow us to: 1) systematically understand how these approaches have been previously used, 2) understand the effectiveness and/or outcomes associated with using storytelling and arts-based approaches in health, 3) develop recommendations for health care professionals, policy makers and researchers on the utility of these approaches, and 4) identify areas of investigation for researchers who wish to utilize non-traditional approaches to engage with their knowledge users.