Evidence-based public health
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Public health professionals are often asked to synthesize the best health evidence in order to formulate health care policies. Evidence-based - or evidence-informed - public health is an extension of evidence-based medicine. All kinds of decisions in health care are made with little or no evidence to guide decision-makers but first the education, health and social policy literature must be thoroughly searched for the availability of previous research studies. This pathfinder or start here is meant to provide a starting point to the hundreds of websites internationally that can be used to begin a search for the grey literature in evidence-informed public health (EIPH).
In the 21st century, public health decision-makers must evaluate policies and programs based on scientific evidence. The first step in planning policy evaluations is to determine what is known about a topic from existing evidence. Gathering evidence involves systematic literature searching. The literature provides an overview for decision-makers and informs them how policy issues might be addressed. The cumulation of evidence begins with framing research questions in the area, devising a search strategy, gathering information and data, and synthesizing the literature. Creating new intelligence and policy takes time in order to understand and define the issues affecting the programs and populations in question. How new knowledge (or, evidence) is collected and applied has a direct impact on policy-making and health outcomes.
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Who needs public health information?
Who produces public health information?
Major educational, health & policy producers
Access a wide range of information sources, including abstracts and indexes, full-text journals, electronic books, images, statistics and scientific data by using the relevant links below:
U.S. Public Health 2.0
A to M producers of evidence-informed public health (EIPH)
N to Z producers of EIPH
Indexes & databases
Other web resources in EIPH
Key / high impact journals
Finding systematic reviews in EBPH