Evidence-Based Public Health: Web Resources

One of the fundamental elements of evidence-based public health is identifying scientific evidence for policy and decision-making. This site is a treasure trove of information for understanding health policy development at the community level. This web tool is provided by the Work Group for Community Health and Development at University of Kansas.

Developed by the Information Services Department of the Library of the Health Sciences-Chicago at the University of Illinois at Chicago, these tutorials are tailored to five health sciences disciplines: Applied Health, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy.

"From Evidence to Practice" is a self-paced, web-based course, that teaches the evidence-based public health decision-making process by plunging learners into a realistic situation. The tutorial is provided by the New York New Jersey Public Health Training Center.

Quality measures are mechanisms that enable the user to quantify the quality of a selected aspect of care by comparing it to an evidence-based criterion that specifies what is better quality. These educational resources will provide an introduction to the field of quality measurement and inform users how to best use National Quality Measures Clearinghouse.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the health services research arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), complementing the biomedical research mission of its sister agency, the National Institutes of Health. AHRQ is a home to research centers that specialize in major areas of health care research such as quality improvement and patient safety, outcomes and effectiveness of care, clinical practice and technology assessment, and health care organization and delivery systems.

The Association aims to protect all Americans, their families and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States.

Bandolier is a UK (United Kingdom)-based website with links to a monthly evidence-based journal, a glossary of EBM (evidence-based medicine) terms, and a knowledge library of varied topics excerpted from systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomized trials, and high quality observational studies.

A companion site to the well-known David Sackett book, Evidence-based Medicine: How to practice and teach EBM. The website features EBM resources for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as continuing education materials for health care professionals.

Free database of systematic reviews of effectiveness of public health interventions from McMaster University in Ontario.

Public health and health care policy-makers need a trustworthy source of evidence on which to build health policy. WHO/Europe addresses this need with HEN, which gives access to independent and reliable health information and evidence.

Occupational Therapy Systematic Evaluation of Evidence. Abstracts of systematic reviews & randomized controlled trials.

The TRIP Database is a clinical search tool designed to allow health professionals to rapidly identify the highest quality clinical evidence for clinical practice.

WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.