A practical model for health policy making and analysis

Health policy is course of actions developed by policy makers and senior managers in the areas of financing, resource generation and health service delivery to promote, restore, and maintain health of the community. It is a guide to low-level managers’ decision-making and planning. This study aimed to develop a practical model for health policy making and analysis.

This research was conducted using scoping review method. All policy making and policy analysis models published and indexed in the Web Of Science, Scopus, Embase and PubMed databases and two search engines (e.g., Google and Google scholar) were searched using appropriate keywords. Finally, 43 policy making and policy analysis models were selected and analysed using framework synthesis method.

Policy making is a complex, dynamic, evolving and rarely linear process. An integrated model of health policy and analysis consisting of four phases (policy preparation, policy formulation, policy implementation and policy evaluation) and 10 steps (policy secretariat formation, problem definition, consensus building, agenda setting, policy content  writing, policy advocacy, policy planning, policy execution, policy monitoring and policy evaluation) was developed. The garbage can and bounded rationality approaches are used in this model for health policy making.

An integrated model of health policy-making and analysis was developed according to the historical, political, economic, social, cultural and technological conditions of Iran. This model can be used for health policy making and health policy analysis (retrospectively and prospectively).