News

By Kim Barnhardt

OSSU’s policy roundtables are a wealth of information for both the general public and its core audience of policymakers, researchers, clinicians and patient partners. The roundtables bring together a range of panelists who present and discuss innovative patient-partnered research to help improve Ontario’s health system. That’s why Healthy Debate, the health care platform that publishes content to stimulate debate, raise awareness and contribute to health care in Ontario and Canada, is focused on sharing, and mobilizing, this information.

Dr. Seema Marwaha, a general internal medicine specialist and editor-in-chief of Healthy Debate, is leading an initiative to summarize the wealth of information from the roundtables for two audience groups. The first is a digital magazine published on the website with relevant, readable information for patients and the public.

“We’ll talk about what is relevant information for the every day person that comes out of the policy roundtables,” says Dr. Marwaha. “What do they need to know to advocate for their health? We’re taking complex but up-to-date information and thinking about core messaging how it links to significant health topics for Ontarians and Canadians.”

The second companion piece is a summary report with policy content geared towards a health care audience of policymakers, researchers, clinicians, patient partners and patient advocates.

She sees this as an essential piece of Healthy Debate’s partnership with OSSU.

“There is so much advocacy, skills building, research content in the roundtables so we are working on a catalogue of content for the policy and health care audience. It’s such important work so we want to make sure we have a catalogue of it all by theme rather than with all the details.”

The success of Healthy Debate, which is centred on Ontario’s health system within the wider Canadian context, has expanded far beyond these borders. A series on learning health systems found a broad audience not just in Canada but spanning North America.

“It was a niche series but it found a range of audiences across North America which was surprising. It was something about the digital magazine format that took dense information and made it readable. In addition to the learning health explainer that was popular, there were 6 case studies that went viral across different institutions and did well with everyone. They were very relatable and found a broad audience across the continent.”

Healthy Debate uses storytelling and distills down content into a compelling read to increase uptake and awareness that they hope translates into practice.

“It’s important – we focus on knowledge generation but we also need to focus on knowledge translation and knowledge mobilization,” says Dr. Marwaha, explaining that knowledge mobilization is making best practices part of clinical work to have longer-term impact.

She cites the wealth of research on gender, antiracism, equity and more where we have best practices but they aren’t fully being utilized. Her vision is that the partnership between Healthy Debate and OSSU can help change that, combining robust content with Healthy Debate’s accessible approach and
wide reach.

“What strikes me is the amount of work, expertise that goes into creating the content, the roundtables, and you want to ensure something happens with that work and that it continues, that it’s recognized.”

“The work doesn’t stop when the research is published. We’re part of working together with OSSU to make the most of the knowledge once it’s generated. We want to work nimbly and iteratively with OSSU to figure out the best way to achieve impact.”

“We should be able to change practice sooner. Are people taking new knowledge and using it? That’s a success.”

Her takeaway?

“Make it sticky, evergreen.”