Using Knowledge and Evidence in Health Care: Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Jane Heath teaches psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto.

The editors of this book have performed a valuable service for
researchers in the biological sciences, for health-care policy-makers
and practitioners, and for related industries. Authors of varying
professional backgrounds present and discuss the results of a seven-year
research collaboration examining the use of research-based knowledge and
evidence in health care, from the clinical, organizational,
informational, and political viewpoints.

The focus is on understanding the links between the structure and
nature of research evidence and its use in decision-making in
health-care settings. As well, the ways in which research evidence is
currently made use of, underlying assumptions governing this usage, and
challenges and limits involved in the practice of evidence-based
decision-making are examined from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The range of topics discussed is comprehensive: encompassing social
sciences models of knowledge utilization and the implicit theories of
the relationship of science and practice on which they are based; the
interpretation and use of knowledge in the making of political policy;
the diffusion of research-based innovations in health-care systems and
the determinants of their dissemination and use; models of evaluation of
research evidence and utilization, and the actual decision-making
process at the organizational/political levels, its nature,
determinants, and outcome quality; methods for sifting useful studies
from the plethora of published research; differences between expert and
non-expert approaches to understanding; human–computerized decision
support in clinical settings; and an analysis and synthesis of the
current understanding of evidence-based decision-making in the field of
nursing.

Each chapter constitutes a discussion and analysis of one of the
aforementioned topics that is both thought-provoking and thoroughly
grounded in recent and seminal research. Taken as a whole, this book is
a valuable multidisciplinary examination of vital and topical issues, in
an area of burgeoning interest to the many sectors of society involved,
directly or indirectly, with the provision of health care.