Home > Chronic Diseases > Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada > Vol 32, No 2, March 2012 > Text Equivalent - News: A new knowledge synthesis method that is applicable to public policies
The NCCHPP has developed a method that is applicable to public policies. This method guides rigorous knowledge syntheses on six dimensions relevant to the study of public policies: their effectiveness at preventing disease, their unintended effects, their equity-related issues (distribution of effects on different population groups), and their costs, feasibility and acceptability—three kinds of implementation issues of concern to policy makers.
Figure 2 describes the steps that are taken in the knowledge synthesis process. Step 1 is a preliminary exploration of the literature and involves an inventory of policies and selection of the subject of synthesis. Step 2 is the construction of the logic model — an explication of the intervention logic. Step 3 is the literature review — a synthesis of data drawn from the literature. Step 4 involves the enrichment and contextualization of data, which are deliberative processes. The overall result is the desired synthesis: the integration of data drawn from the literature and from deliberative processes.