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Table 2 Interview themes

From: How does context influence collaborative decision-making for health services planning, delivery and evaluation?

Theme

Sub-themes

Exemplar quote

Awareness or knowledge of IKT

Unaware or unclear

It’s not a term that I commonly use [012CO/R]

Equated with dissemination

It’s the process whereby information that has been generated scientifically is transmitted to others who have interest in the knowledge [017CO/RU]

Understanding of collaborative nature

A relationship between knowledge users and producers that can be on-going [010CO/U]

Researchers initiated/used IKT

I have to make sure that what I’m finding gets out there [002CO/R]

Need for tailoring to context/audience

Depending on who your audience is, you try and construct the activity to the audience [007CO/U]

Benefit of IKT

Improved the relevance and quality of research

Without that dialogue the likelihood of producing something that’s relevant in the healthcare context that you wish to impact on is lower [004CO/R]

Inform new research questions

Stakeholders can also inform the researchers in what are research priorities etc. [011GE/RU]

Increase efficiency of research

Ultimately save time, money and other resources [032PR/R]

Facilitated learning relevant to professional tasks

There’s mutual learning and assistance to help the various participants move ahead in whatever their agenda is [022PR/RU]

Enhanced understanding of different perspectives

Useful for researchers to understand what the research priorities are from the perspective of the policy- makers [014GE/R]

Promote use of research

You’re creating a ready-made receptor for the knowledge along the way [022PR/RU]

Improved decision-making, policy, practice and outcomes

Bring knowledge to practice in order to improve outcomes [030PR/R]

Accelerates production and use of research

The best way to accelerate the process of integration of best evidence in practice, policy, etc. [014GE/R]

Engagement in IKT

Embedded researchers interacted with managers

Because I’m embedded-that allows that exchange of knowledge to happen [004CO/R]

Focus on interaction with clinicians

Much of my work in terms of presentations has been to clinical people [030PR/R]

Managers unclear about benefit

I don’t know where there would be a benefit of direct interaction with researchers [020GE/U]

Researchers engaged in program evaluation

The only time that we have [involved researchers] is after the fact [006GE/U]

Managers prefer learning about research through publications

I really like systematic reviews of evidence so that I don’t have to sift through all of the stuff that’s out there [009CO/U]

IKT took place in regularly scheduled meetings

It’s generally a meeting over video-conference or a face-to-face meeting [018PR/U]

Challenges and enablers of IKT

Willingness to collaborate

They’re responsive and willing to learn, and collaborate with us [008CO/R]

Innate ability to collaborate

Some people are good at committees, some are not. Stipend or formal position won’t change that [003PA/R]

Motivation and incentives

Researchers often are involved in research as a pure academic pursuit so they don’t think through the need to share that information quickly with policy-makers. They’re focused on peer-reviewed publication as their reward [019PR/U]

Need for formal linkages

You have to be linked to a program or service to really know what’s going on [002CO/R]

Responsibility unclear

It’s me who is initiating the request [to interact with policy makers] [008CO/R]

Awareness of, or access to opportunities

We don’t have the means to know about all the other forums for exchange that are going on and often they’re invitation only for people that are clinicians [029PR/U]

Resistance to change

Users are not necessarily so open to embracing change [023PR/RU]

Unintended transformation or use of research findings

It transforms the product so much that you’ve lost what was the principle research finding [004CO/R]

Unsynchronized timelines

It’s just synchronizing everyone towards the same goal at the same time [028PR/RU]

Organizational endorsement

There’s got to be buy-in from the institution [033PR/R]

Leadership advocacy

The manager is the interface [013GE/RU]

Mentors and champions

Having a local champion has been helpful [025PA/RU]

Time required

The biggest challenge would just simply that everyone’s very, very busy [003PA/R]

Resources and incentives

It’s impossible to get very busy people to do this kind of work without (compensation) [002CO/R]

Difficult to evaluate and show impact

It’s difficult to measure and also difficult to find an impact [017GE/RU]