Abstract

[This article was originally published in Healthcare Policy, 10(2)]

Objectives: (1) To develop an online repository of policy-relevant documents, other than and complementary to those from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, addressing healthcare renewal in Canada; and (2) to describe the distribution of document contents.

Methods: An iterative scoping review approach was undertaken. Documents were identified through website hand-searches and referrals from 19 Canadian health organizations. Descriptive frequencies were calculated, such as for document type.

Findings: In July 2014, 1,034 documents were in the Evidence-Informed Healthcare Renewal Portal. The top three types of documents were situation analyses (n = 390, 38%), health and health system data (n = 191, 18%) and jurisdictional reviews (n = 115, 11%). The top three national priority areas addressed were health human resources (n = 778, 75%), quality as a performance indicator (n = 502, 49%) and information technology (n = 385, 37%).

Conclusion: The process of developing a systematic method for identifying these documents has yielded a new resource to support evidence-informed health policy making and has identified a large volume of policy-relevant documents addressing healthcare renewal priority areas in Canada.