Translating Science Into Policy
Authors: Robert A. Harrington, Keith Churchwell, Laurie P. Whitsel
Journal: Circulation (2019)

s an evidence-based policy making organization, 1 the American Heart Association (AHA) works with a diverse group of experts around the world to translate science into policy that equitably transforms systems, the environment, and the delivery of care to help people live longer, healthier lives.This effort requires an important collaboration between science and policy analogous to the work AHA does in translating evidence into effective clinical guidelines that transform and improve patient care.Through legislation and regulation at all levels of government, including policy at the organizational level and even at the granular level of individual health systems, successful policy change can improve millions of lives.Federal, state, and local governments can pass legislation and develop regulation that can be transformative for improving population health and well-being.For example, moving toward a tobacco endgame (ending tobacco use and nicotine addiction in the United States), requires bold strategies, including the regulation of newer tobacco products such as e-cigarettes.At the same time, we need to continue the decadeslong legislative and regulatory strategies such as comprehensive clean indoor air in public places, tobacco excise taxes, and comprehensive cessation benefits in public and private healthcare plans that have reduced combustible tobacco use.All of these public policy changes that are part of the AHA's legislative and regulatory work, grassroots efforts, and media advocacy at all levels of government begin with policy research that translates the science and evidence base.Policy change can be at the organizational or systems level.Corporations can create policies that foster healthier work environments for their employees and for the communities they interact with and support.Hospital systems can implement policies that improve patient care and positively address the social determinants of health that can have significant impact on their local communities. 2Science and policy will be ongoing partners to identify impactful policy development at the organizational, systems, or governmental level.Policy can take what we discover in science, and then amplify, scale, and over time, shift social norms.We get in our cars and buckle our seat belts, we sit in smoke-free restaurants, we have food labels that help us purchase healthy choices, and we have air quality standards that, if maintained, are creating a healthier planet.Ongoing scientific investigation then informs us whether these cultural norms and environmental changes transform population health and well-being.Today, it is more important than ever that we elevate facts and credible science to inform policy in the United States and across the world.Heart disease mortality is beginning to increase after a decades-long decline, especially in certain segments of the population. 3If we are going to reverse this troubling trend, we need to invest in science that is policy relevant.For example, research that addresses whether e-cigarettes are efficacious as smoking cessa-