Malaysian Alliance for Embedding Rapid Reviews in Health Systems Decision-Making (MAera) representatives were honored to have a meeting with Dr Abdul Ghaffar, Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR), that took place on 13 April 2019 to discuss the progress of ERA platform establishment in Malaysia, including sustainability, challenges faced and suggestions for improvement.
Key messages from the meeting were:
1. Make ERA platform establishment a priority project and plan to ensure sustainability beyond funding period.
2. Generating demand for rapid reviews in health systems decision-making requires marketing and communicating the correct information – that there is a new method of producing rapid evidence on issues related to health systems.
3. Showcase MAera (ERA platform) to the Ministry of Health top management to facilitate embedding the platform within the Ministry of Health
4. Ensure scientific rigour of rapid review methodology and development of new science in scientifically reviewing grey literature related to health systems topics should be published
MAera is currently funded by AHPSR to embed a platform within the Ministry of Health to produce outputs using a faster approach (rapid reviews) to produce timely evidence to inform health systems decision-making. The team looks forward to continue the exciting journey with the valuable input from Dr Abdul Ghaffar.