How can we document lessons learned from various health initiatives?

How can we better document and share ‘lessons learned’ from the various public health initiatives we undertake in developing countries?

How one describes lessons learnt, being truthful about discussing what works and doesn’t work, and making it accessible (language, timeliness, mode of delivery and source of the documents) to the practitioners audience are important first steps. Academic institution should play a role in helping the ‘people on the ground’ – provincial and national health managers, technical advisers working ‘at the coalface’ to get their experiences into working papers that can be widely shared – have some academic rigour, not necessarily peer reviewed publications – but aids to practice. The experience of many of my staff who have been in the field working at implementation levels, and are now in an academic environment – is that one is so often busy writing briefings, progress reports, policy documents, etc that there is no time (nor incentive linked to the work place) to share these lessons learnt – and sometimes the lessons can be sensitive in nature. However my staff tell me that perhaps being accessed by and accessible to academics who could interview them using case study methods, and bring some academic rigour into the analysis of the lessons learnt would be a feasible way of marrying real life lessons with groups who have the mandate to write and analyze.

The HIS Knowledge Hub (www.uq.edu.au/hishub) Working Paper and Documentation Note Series is an example of bringing these two sets of knowledge together – with a quicker turn-around time, more accessible to a broader audience, and linked to on-the-ground questions about effectiveness.

AusAID’s Development Gateway is another source – as are many similar knowledge hubs and networks. The Bulletin of the WHO, the Lancet special series and the MSH website are other examples of the voice of the field being provided to the global community of practice.