Background: The Department of Science and Technology of the Brazilian Ministry of Health is developing a program to promote the use of evidence at the decision-making level for public policies on health. In the Brazilian context, a governmental program is a tool that expresses and guides actions aimed at supporting, managing, and maintaining government action. To help in the elaboration of this initiative, an expanded search of the current evidence on the institutional implementation of evidence-informed decision-making was proposed.
Objectives: The rapid scoping review aimed to identify existing evidence on programs and initiatives to promote the use of evidence for decision-making in public health in Brazil and worldwide.
Methods: The operational steps of this review were carried out following the procedures proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute, with some adaptations that allowed the completion of the review in a timely manner. The writing of the review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. A structured search was performed in May of 2022, in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Virtual Health Library. An additional search was carried out on Google Scholar and institutional/government websites.
Results: The 62 studies or documents identified in this rapid scoping review provided a broad view of what exists in Brazil and in the world on strategies, guidelines, and programs to promote the use of evidence in public policy. The identified evidence had some points in common, such as the need for evidence-producing services in the institution; they highlighted the important role of dissemination of evidence throughout all levels; and the need for a conscious cultural change in the institution, towards evidence-informed decision-making.
Conclusions: The implementation of a program to promote the use of evidence, in the context of the Brazilian health system, must consider scientific advances and the different strategies, currently recognized, for institutionalizing evidence-based decision-making. This review's analysis of guidelines, barriers, and facilitators of the process of designing a program, was an important step to take for the development of a national program for evidence-informed decision-making and innovation in health.
Patient, public and/or healthcare consumer involvement: none.