Grant: Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)

Academics research important policy issues and the media communicate with the public about these issues. Often there is little overlap between what researchers say is the evidence and what the media report. Our proposal will attempt to change this. This project will partner researchers with media experts and with influential independent third party brokers of research evidence - Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF), Canadian Policy Research Network (CPRN), Media Doctor) - to improve the use of research evidence by the media in their coverage of key health policy issues. We will focus on issues such as waiting times, user fees, immunization, the sustainability of Medicare, issues which directly affect Canadians, and about which they seek evidence from unbiased reliable sources. CHSRF publishes a respected series called Mythbusters, which identifies the best research evidence around these major health policy issues. However, the Mythbusters series has never targeted the media for uptake, and hence has been largely ignored. The 2008 Mythbuster, "Myth: Canada's system of healthcare financing is unsustainable" typifies this problem. Within two months after publication, the Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press both ran articles ignoring the evidence which the Mythbuster presented. This project seeks to improve the Canadian health care system and ultimately the health of Canadians by ensuring that our best health policy evidence is understood by the media and communicated to Canadians and policy makers via the media. We will partner researchers with experienced media advisors and third party evidence brokers, to develop and evaluate approaches for working with reporters. We will provide evidence when it has been ignored. With staffing cutbacks at many media outlets, the time is right for creating an accessible, credible, evidence based health policy news resource.