Implications of evidence-based practice for community health (1)

American Journal of Community Psychology,  June, 2002  by Alice J. Hausman

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INTRODUCTION

Evidence-based practice seeks to improve patient care, health care delivery, and contain costs by basing practice on demonstrated causal linkages between interventions and health outcomes and on continuous monitoring of performance. Originally developed in clinical medicine, recommendations for evidence-based practice are now being made for public health practice (Jackson, Pitkin, & Kington, 1998; Gray, 1997; Thacker, Koplan, Taylor, Katz, & Roper, 1994). Implementation of evidence-based practice in clinical medicine has not been without problems, some of which are likely to affect implementation in community health. This paper discusses barriers both to amassing evidence and to using evidence for decision-making ...