title: Research to policy and practice change: is capacity building in operational research delivering the goods?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Between 2009 and 2012, eight operational research capacity building courses were completed in Paris (3), Luxembourg (1), India (1), Nepal (1), Kenya (1) and Fiji (1). Courses had strict milestones that were subsequently adopted by the Structured Operational Research and Training InitiaTive (SORT IT) of the World Health Organization. We report on the numbers of enrolled participants who successfully completed courses, the number of papers published and their reported effect on policy and/or practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study including a survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participant selection criteria ensured that only those proposing specific programme-related and relevant operational research questions were selected. Effects on policy and/or practice were assessed in a standardised manner by two independent reviewers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 93 enrolled participants from 31 countries (14 in Africa, 13 in Asia, two in Latin America and two in South Pacific), 83 (89%) completed their courses. A total of 96 papers were submitted to scientific journals of which 89 (93%) were published and 88 assessed for effect on policy and practice. There was a reported effect in 65 (74%) studies including changes to programme implementation (27), adaptation of monitoring tools (24) and changes to existing guidelines (20).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Three quarters of published operational research studies from these structured courses had reported effects on policy and/or practice. It is important that this type of tracking becomes a standard component of operational research and research in general.
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Medical Department, Brussels Operational Centre, MSF-Luxembourg, Luxembourg, France.
authors.forename: Rony
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zachariah
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Guillerm
authors.forename: Selma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: Ajay M V
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Srinath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Satyanarayana
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bissell
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Edginton
authors.forename: Sven Gudmund
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Hinderaker
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tayler-Smith
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Van den Bergh
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khogali
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manzi
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramsay
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Reeder
authors.forename: Anthony D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Harries
mesh_terms: D057191:Capacity Building; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D003906:Developing Countries; D006291:Health Policy; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D009874:Operations Research; D011642:Publications; D012106:Research / Q000193:education*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014944:World Health Organization
keywords: Investigación; MSF; Médecins sans Frontières; SORT IT; Structured Operational Research and Training IniTiative; UNION; Union; capacity building; desarrollo de capacidades; impact; impacto; recherche; renforcement des capacités; research; tri