Full Programme

Plenary Session Schedule

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Plenary Session Schedule

Tuesday 10 Sep 2024
Wednesday 11 Sep 2024
Thursday 12 Sep 2024
Friday 13 Sep 2024

Tuesday

Opening Plenary – Sustainable development agenda

09.20 AM
09.35 AM

Jeremy Farrar

Chief Scientist, World Health Organization

Bio

How can evidence help societies navigate in an age of rapid scientific advances, disruption, mistrust and profound global challenges

We live in a golden age of science when rapid advances are making what seemed impossible only a short while ago now a reality. Yet, at the same time, there are questions in all societies around the world about those very advances, a growing mistrust of science, of scientists and of institutions, and misinformation and challenge to the evidence on which that science is based. If we are to ensure that science can help provide solutions to the great issues of our time, and reduce, not increase inequality we need to address these complex issues of mistrust and misinformation and ensure the highest quality, transparency and understanding of science, that it is accessible to all and a part of all our lives and our culture.

09.35 AM
09.50 AM

Najat Aoun Saliba

Adjunct Professor, American University of Beirut

Bio

In Times of War and Conflict: Rethinking the Path to SDG Progress

In recent years, wars in Europe and the Middle East have disrupted lives and hindered progress on the SDGs, forcing many into unbearable conditions. This crisis underscores the need to redefine our values and align our actions with our principles. Despite the challenges, many have not given up, and their sporadic initiatives show that we can rebuild not just better, but in a way that genuinely reflects our commitments.

09.50 AM
10.05 AM

Isabelle Mercier

Leader, UNDP Independent Evaluation Office

Bio

Leveraging Underutilized Data for Accelerating SDG Progress

Despite the wealth of information available on achieving the SDGs, much of it remains underused. Emerging technologies and methods promise to enhance our understanding, but their potential will only be realized if we ensure that information are effectively shared with the right people at the right time. The Global SDG Synthesis Coalition is committed to turning existing analyses into new insights and bridging the gap between research and decision-making, so that together we can make a real difference and accelerate progress toward a sustainable future.

Plenary 2 – Research integrity making evidence accessible

02.10 PM
02.25 PM

Carla Saenz

Regional Program on Bioethics of PAHO

Bio

Taking evidence seriously means taking ethics seriously

I will explain the ways in which ethics is embedded in Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworks, and clarify pervasive confusions regarding ethics as a discipline, e.g. the difference between normative and empirical claims. Reflecting on the pandemic experience, I will discuss the impact of conflating moral judgement with evidence, and the path forward to integrate ethics rigorously in EtD frameworks.

02.25 PM
02.40 PM

Isabelle Boutron

Professor of Epidemiology at the Université Paris Cité

Bio

Overcoming Challenges to Ensure the Truthfulness of Primary Research

Evidence synthesis can adequately inform guideline developers and public health decisions only if the results of primary research are trustworthy. The current scientific ecosystem mainly relies on the peer-review process to determine whether the results of clinical research deserve publication. This talk will highlight the limitations of the peer-review process, along with the new challenges arising from preprints and the development of generative AI, which is transforming research practices. We will discuss possible solutions, such as new automated tools to track untrustworthy research, and the potential role of evidence synthesis in improving the overall system.

02.40 PM
02.55 PM

James Thomas

EPPI Centre, UCL Social Research Institute, Cochrane

Bio

Developing guidance for the responsible use of AI in evidence synthesis

Currently, we see AI development being driven by commercial interests, knowingly encoding bias in models, and lacking in validation and evaluation. Commercial publishers are creating siloed representations of knowledge from their content, and new evidence synthesis tools are appearing that produce biased and inaccurate output. We need to address this by developing an ecosystem of individuals and organisations to underpin the more appropriate development and responsible use of AI. A draft of guidance and recommendations to support this is now online for consultation. The vision of its authors is for it to become a ‘living’ set of guidelines that assists in the development of AI tools adhering to the principles of research integrity, and so enables equitable and rigorous evidence synthesis.

Wednesday

Plenary 3 – Power of synergy in evidence synthesis & synthesis products

09.10 AM
09.35 AM

Holger Schünemann

Professor, Public Health and Preventive Medicine

Bio

Bridging Divides: Empowering the Global Health Decision-Making Ecosystem

A few years ago, an international collaboration launched the “theory of everything in health decision-making “addressing challenges and opportunities in bridging divides and achieving synergy between actors in the health-decision making ecosystem. This talk will use examples to help the audience contemplate: How are the elements of this theory playing out? What examples exist where we have made progress? What are the next steps and what does the community need to do considering health and social science developments in the use of evidence?

09.35 AM
10.00 AM

Jitka Klugarová

Deputy director, Czech offices Cochrane, JBI, GRADE

Bio

Where is the balance between speed and rigour in guidelines production and utilization synergy?

Achieving synergy in high-quality guideline development and implementation within a short time frame demands a delicate balance between speed and rigor. Facilitating this process involves focused prioritization, leveraging existing resources, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and utilizing digital tools. However, it's essential to manage challenges like compromised rigor, limited stakeholder engagement, and potential biases to ensure the guidelines remain robust and practical. The main goal of this presentation is to open a discussion on finding the threshold between quality and time-efficiency.

10.00 AM
10.25 AM

Promise Nduku

Co-director and evidence synthesis leader, PACE

Bio

Practical reflections of embedded co-production in South Africa

The presentation focuses on our experience co-producing different evidence synthesis products mainly evidence maps through a co-production approach that is led and pioneered and led by the Centre of Government in South Africa.

Plenary 4 – Evidence translation & implementation

02.05 PM
02.20 PM

David R. Williams

Professor, Public Health and African/African American Studies, Harvard

Bio

Reducing Health Inequities: Urgent Need to Maximize Translating Science into Innovative Solutions

Inequities in health by race/ethnicity and social status exist globally. Examples of evidence-based, effective interventions that can reduce social inequities in health are highlighted, and a call is made for renewed emphasis on creating the political will to implement such interventions on a large scale, nationally and globally.

02.20 PM
02.35 PM

Andrea Ordóñez Llanos

Co-founder and Senior Research Fellow, Southern Voice

Bio

The role of research and policy networks in evidence use

The presentation will explore how collaborations among different stakeholders in the evidence use space can emerge, and what is their impact in informing the use of evidence at different policy levels. It will explore how we can unpack policy problems to determine the plausible role of evidence, the types of collaborations that can happen and finally reflect on what this means for the evidence community moving forward.

02.35 PM
02.50 PM

Yan Hu

Director, Fudan University Center of Evidence-based Nursing

Bio

Evidence Implementation: model development and cultural adaptation

Evidence-informed decision making in healthcare is widely recognized as the foundation for continuing quality improvement in the 21th century. As the world’s largest developing country, Mainland China has embraced evidence-based healthcare for more than 15 years. Therefore, it is essential to contribute to the global knowledge of evidence implementation by exploring the cultural-relevant cases of evidence implementation in healthcare field. In this paper, we discussed how JBI model of EBHC, PARIHS model and Fudan Model of Evidence-based implementation were applied in clinical decision making system and their impact on quality of care improvement.

02.50 PM
03.05 PM

Lara Fairall

Professor, Global Healthcare Delivery at King’s College

Bio

“A tool for every day for every patient” – The Practical Approach to Care Kit closing know-do gaps in primary healthcare in low and middle-income countries

As the burden of disease changes, so too the demands on primary healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. Fragmented, vertical programme delivery is increasingly unfit to meet the needs of people with long-term conditions and their risk factors occurring earlier in life. For the past 20 years the Practical Approach to Care Kit, or PACK, has developed, evaluated and scaled tools and implementation strategies to support primary healthcare across the life course. PACK has been adopted at scale in South Africa for 10 years, Ethiopia for 5 years, is being scaled in Brazil, piloted in several Nigerian states and introduced in Indonesia. I will provide a brief overview of PACK and share reflections on how it does and does not support evidence-informed implementation of evidence-informed care. I will also show how we are leveraging AI and a global south community of policymakers, clinicians and people with lived experience to strengthen Primary Healthcare for Universal Health Coverage.

Thursday

Plenary 5 – Advocating for greater evidence communication & use of evidence

09.10 AM
09.20 AM

Ladislav Dušek

Director, Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic

Bio

From clinically-based evidence to evidence-based medicine: a story of building data-based policy via eHealth tools in the Czech Republic

I will summarize more than 10 years experience in building completely new health care information system in Czechia, which was developed as an intrinsic component of newly born eHealth system. In several examples on cancer care I would document its strategic role in fostering evidence use in cancer care management like establishment of network of comprehensive cancer centres, implementation of cancer screening programmes, complex social-health background for end-of-life care, etc. All the steps are undoubtedly "evidence-based" but without representative data collection and information platform it would be hard to advocate them and to implement them in wide collaboration of political authorities and health system. Finally, I would like to document future potential of such "data-based environment" in fostering evidence use in current research focused on personalized medicine, 1ofN trials, etc.

09.20 AM
09.30 AM

Patrick Okwen

Medical doctor and researcher

Bio

The Coming of the Two Rivers: Using an Indigenous Storytelling Approach to Communicate Research Evidence to Those Who Need Research Evidence

Researchers develop research for everyone but end up speaking to themselves at conferences and scientific journals. Meanwhile resources have been developed to share research evidence with policy makers and practitioners, this has not been the case with the populations. Getting research to the population is necessary for evidence use for informed decisions by citizens and households. This keynote will reflect the complexity of scientific/research evidence, monopoly of language, and low literacy rates and how this affect research uptake. The keynote will then share our experiences of how we have used traditional African storytelling approach to communicate research evidence across the globe. Our approach is based on the African philosophy of Ubuntu and how the river of science needs the river of stories to enable the villagers (humanity) access the river’s waters (research evidence). The keynote will challenge the global evidence ecosystem to systematically integrate storytelling as an approach to getting evidence into households and communities to enable evidence informed decision making.

09.30 AM
09.40 AM

Devaki Nambiar

Program Director, George Institute for Global Health, India

Bio

Thought bubbles from a litany of (as yet unadmitted) failures of policy engagement in India

I will be talking a bit about what I was taught about policy engagement and knowledge translation, my experience with it in various projects in India. I will then speak about novel methodological approaches in research that offer hope in the face of chronic failure, including how we may harness and marshal the incredible power of tacit knowledge in evidence-informed policy advocacy. We are learning about this in our teams, our collaborations and looking to systematise them in our institutions. I will end with a call to mindfulness

09.40 AM
09.50 AM

Laura Boeira

Executive director, Instituto Veredas, Brazil

Bio

Fostering evidence use in Brazil: a tale of informality and radical collaboration

I will address the role that informality plays in building a ‘climate’ for the use of evidence in policy in Brazil, as well as the ways we have incorporated a 'radical collaboration' approach to building evidence networks that sustain themselves on pillars such as willingness to get your hands dirty, cheering and caring for each other, and keeping the door open for diversity. I will also argue that there is a gardening component to fostering evidence use in terms of understanding seasons, building a fertile soil, catering for the ecosystem's needs, learning how to make compost out of 'trash' and knowing how to spread seeds.

Friday

Plenary 6 and Closing Session – From global evidence to local impact

01.40 PM
01.55 PM

Alric Ruether

Head of International Affairs at IQWiG; Chair of INAHTA

Bio

Global Need for Evidence and Health Technology Assessment: How Do They Align?

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) aims to provide decision-makers in the healthcare sector with a comprehensive, current, and independent evidence base. The demands for high-quality evidence are significant, yet national needs often differ markedly. Meeting these diverse requirements can be resource-intensive. International collaboration through networks and organizations appears to offer a solution, but challenges remain. Using INAHTA and EU-HTA as examples, this discussion explores the activities, opportunities, and obstacles in integrating evidence and its qualitative analysis into local decision-making processes.

01.55 PM
02.10 PM

Jane Mariara

Executive Director, Partnership for Economic Policy

Bio

Contextualizing evidence to maximize impact: Insights from Partnership for Economic Policy

In the session, I will share the key elements of Partnership for Economic Policy’s strategy to maximizing impact of evidence in local contexts; these include 1) the localization and coproduction of research, 2) an innovative knowledge translation process, and 3) a new approach to support policymakers in assimilating evidence into decision processes.

02.10 PM
02.25 PM

John Lavis

Founding Director, McMaster Health Forum

Bio

SHOW ME the evidence: An approach to reliably getting research evidence to those who need it

The world is poised for a step-change improvement in how we use evidence to address societal challenges. I propose to focus primarily on the first and second features of the ‘SHOW ME the evidence’ approach to reliably getting research evidence to those who need it: 1) support systems nationally that use many forms of research evidence to help address local priorities; and 2) harmonized efforts globally that make it easier to learn from others around the world.

9.00 AM
10.00 AM