Table 3 Effective KTE strategies with policymakers, based on the linear EIP approach

There is evidence from systematic reviews to show that the following six strategies can increase health policymakers’ “intention to act” on the evidence presented to them [6–8, 16, 17] (Additional file 1):

• Providing policymakers with evidence briefs: short, accessible summaries of systematic review and local evidence, describing the context, problem and policy options, and paying attention to issues such as policy implementation, equity, local applicability and the quality of the underlying evidence.

• Deliberative dialogues: these are in-person discussions between researchers and policymakers, typically followed by a year-long service in which policymakers receive evidence updates; the dialogues are based on evidence briefs.

• Providing policymakers with systematic review-derived products: summaries of reviews, overviews of reviews, and policy briefs.

• “One-stop shops” of optimally-packaged online systematic review-derived products. An example of a one-stop shop is Health Evidence (www.healthevidence.org), which allows users to find evidence on the effectiveness of public health interventions; the resource can be searched by topic (e.g. premature birth, maternal depression, etc.).

• “Rapid response units,” which provide policymakers written summaries, telephone consultations or in-person consultations about best evidence.

• SUPPORT tools for evidence-informed health policy making. A set of tools developed by the Supporting Policy Relevant Reviews and Trials (SUPPORT) project aimed at helping decision makers in health to make decisions informed by evidence. The tools cover topics such as identifying evidence needs, finding the evidence, and applying the evidence.