Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background: Over four million refugees have fled the conflict in Syria, with the majority now in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Providing essential healthcare is becoming a huge undertaking requiring a multifaceted approach. The scarcity of available resources makes it imperative that resources are used based on research evidence to maximize the health outcomes among vulnerable populations. The challenge is that there is still a gap on how to best utilize research evidence to inform decision making in the field in a crisis situation. The purpose of this research is to a) Identify approaches to supporting evidence informed decision-making in health systems serving Syrian refugees, b) understand some of the barriers and facilitators to using these approaches in health systems serving the Syrian refugee crisis c) to identify ways to measure success in supporting evidence informed decision-making in a overburdened and under-resourced health systems. Three months fieldwork will be conducted at Médecins Sans Frontières operational research unit in Geneva, Switzerland and London, United Kingdom. Methods: Document analysis of suggested approaches to supporting evidence informed decision-making in healthcare delivery for the Syrian refugees. Key informant interviews utilizing semi-structured questions at Médecins Sans Frontières to identify some of the barriers and facilitators to using KT approaches in health systems serving the Syrian refugee crisis. Results: With an increasing demand on health systems to respond to the Syrian refugee migration crisis, there couldn't be a better time to conduct rigorous research to examine approaches to evidence informed decision-making in healthcare delivery for the Syrian refugees. Conclusions: Understanding the findings of the above research questions would enhance the quality, effectiveness and coverage of healthcare programme delivery for Syrian refugees and enable the health system to be more responsive.