Organizational value in enhancing individual research use capacity: a joint evaluation project led by EXTRA and SEARCH Canada.

Evidence-informed decision-making supports high-quality, efficient healthcare. Programs such as SEARCH Classic (Swift Efficient Application of Research in Community Health) and EXTRA (Executive Training for Research Application) give health system decision-makers the skills and experience required to apply the best evidence to their work. But effectively leading change in how evidence comes to bear on the overall management and delivery of care requires strategies aimed at whole organizations and systems. The Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF, EXTRA's managing organization) and SEARCH Canada (the SEARCH Classic program's managing organization) recently launched a jointly commissioned research study to assess organizational mechanisms and the impacts of these programs. Moving away from a focus on individual trainees and their immediate organizational connections, this evaluation builds on the evidence to date that leads to the hypothesis that a critical mass of highly educated, evidence-savvy decision-makers (senior executives in the case of EXTRA; middle- and front-line managers in the case of SEARCH Canada) enhance organizational capacity to use knowledge and ultimately lead to a more systematic use of evidence at the systems level (Champagne et al. 2008).