Improving the use of qualitative evidence in global health decision making: a workshop on the CERQual tool

Background Using research evidence to inform healthcare policies is increasingly common. Ensuring that policies are informed by the best available evidence is particularly important in low and middle income countries (LMICs) where health care resources a re scarce. However, it is not enough to have information on programme effectiveness. Decision makers also need evidence on the programme?s acceptability and feasibility and this evidence can be obtained from systematic reviews of qualitative studies. The Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research (CERQual) tool is a new method for assessing how confident we are in findings from systematic reviews of qualitative evidence. The tool is intended to support evidence-informed policy making in LMICs and other settings. We propose to hold a three day workshop to advance development of the CERQual tool. Workshop objectives 1. To develop an advanced version of the CERQual tool 2. To explore how this tool can be used to support evidence-inf ormed decisions for high-priority global health issues 3. To establish a global network of researchers and decision makers interested in developing a common, user-friendly and relevant approach to assessing confidence in evidence from reviews of qualitati ve research Activities - Preparatory work to examine feedback on earlier versions of CERQual; consult with stakeholders; and prepare the workshop materials - Workshop with stakeholders - Post-workshop dissemination Outputs - An advanced version of the C ERQual tool - Guidance on how CERQual can be used to support evidence-informed decisions for global health issues - Establishment of the CERQual network Outcomes - Improved methods for assessing how much confidence to place in the findings from systemat ic reviews of qualitative evidence - A better understanding of how qualitative review findings can support global health decision making - Stronger collaboration between institutions in the north and south