Translating Clinical Practice Into Health Policy

Understanding a health problem and even having the technological capability to solve it are often not enough to lead to changes in health policy. To help accomplish such policy changes, the authors propose a five-step approach that involves (1) specifying the disciplines; (2) developing multidisciplinary hypotheses; (3) investigating the hypotheses; (4) developing a policy story; and (5) advocating these solutions to policymakers. They use the example of neonatal hypothermia in Eastern China to illustrate this approach. They found that the approach better informed policy and better motivated policy change. Using the approach extended their involvement from the hospital to a wider population; in addition their initial solutions expanded from clinical interventions to broader public health approaches that proved