PHIRIC working groups

Communications

The objectives of the Communications Working Group are to:

• Increase awareness of PHIRIC and population health intervention research findings
• Support population health intervention research literacy within research, policy and practice environments
• Complement efforts already underway to support population health intervention research, including its use and uptake
• Navigate different disciplines and fields (for example, intervention research, evaluation research and knowledge translation) in order to build synergy and integration
• Help more people identify with a field that is perceived as narrow but is actually very broad

Recent activities include:

• Creating a Frequently Asked Questions document (to be published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health)
• Profiling PHIR researchers for the initiative website
• Producing webinars and podcasts
• Disseminating PHIR conference, symposium, and workshop proceedings

Upcoming activities under consideration include journalist workshops to enhance literacy in PHIR, revisions to the PHIRIC website and science communications courses for researchers.

Evaluation

The PHIRIC-related evaluation activities serve three main purposes:

1. As a planning tool for the PHIRIC Planning Committee and its broader constituency - to assist in identifying main assets and gaps in capacities to fund, conduct and use population health intervention research and identify strategies to further strengthen capacity
2. As a strategic communications tool for the Planning Committee - to strengthen engagement and investment in PHIR capacity building in Canada; also to profile the efforts of contributing organizations to a shared goal
3. To contribute to evaluation science - to advance concepts, indicators and methods related to evaluating capacity building for population health intervention research

Past activities include:

• Evaluating the CIHR Intervention Research funding mechanism
• Assessing PHIRIC's return on investment
• Presenting about PHIRIC at international conferences
• Annually updating analyses of CIHR funding for PHIR (first featured in the PHIRIC Canadian Journal of Public Health supplement)

Upcoming evaluations under consideration include evaluating leadership and championship of PHIR at organizational and system (inter-organizational) levels through document reviews and interviews with PHIRIC stakeholders.

Peer review guidelines

Peer review guidelines are proposed as one strategy to ensure that PHIR is appropriately reviewed according to criteria that reflect the complexity and diversity of intervention research methods, theories and contexts.

Under the guidance of this working group, draft peer review guidelines for population health intervention research have been developed and pilot tested with input from research funders and peer reviewers. Guidelines are in the process of being finalized for dissemination.

Activities include:

• Identifying core review criteria for assessing PHIR (building on guidelines)
• Convening a meeting of public health journal editors to discuss the peer review of PHIR manuscripts and collaborative activities
• Developing reporting guidelines for PHIR in journals (exploring guidelines for journal editors)

Training

Training and capacity development is an integral ingredient for strengthening Canada's population health intervention research capacity, specifically with regard to developing a population health intervention research community in Canada.

The Training Working Group aims to:

• Identify shared training goals to support the conduct, funding and use of PHIR
• Develop priorities to advance shared training goals
• Explore opportunities and synergies that can be further enhanced through better coordination and collaboration to advance shared goals
• Provide practical recommendations regarding core competencies for PHIR that can be shared with the PHIRIC Planning Committee, the Strategic Training Initiatives in Health Research and others in a position to promote training opportunities
• Provide advice relating to the planning, implementation and evaluation of training initiatives
• Advise on training tools, methodologies and materials suitable for use in training initiatives and activities
• Consider any other matters relating to training and capacity building as requested by the PHIRIC Planning Committee

Activities include:

• Identifying and mapping existing competencies with potential relevance to PHIR based on an environmental scan and critical review of the competencies of other relevant fields
• Validating and soliciting feedback on the proposed key competencies for PHIR through a systematic analysis of expert responses using an adapted Delphi method
• Using feedback related to the clarity, applicability and importance of the competencies to inform improvements to the list of competencies and recommendations for next steps, including a dissemination plan and publication documenting the process and findings from the adapted Delphi method