Health-evidence Canada - website

Note: the benefit of this site is the combined link/abstract information plus professional commentaries; registration is free

About Us

This web site was originally created with funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is supported today in part by the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH), National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH), National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP), National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID), National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT), and the City of Hamilton Public Health Services Division.
The initial project, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, was conducted by Dr. Maureen Dobbins, Associate Professor, McMaster University (Ontario, Canada) to promote an ongoing environment of collaboration between the research community and the decision-making and practice setting. This site continues to achieve this goal with the City of Hamilton Public Health Services Division, by actively collaborating in ongoing research initiatives.
The ultimate goal of this site is to facilitate the adoption and implementation of effective policies/programs/interventions at the local and regional public health decision making levels across Canada.

To develop this web site, the research team worked to:

1. Identify, appraise, and make available methodologically-sound reviews of health promotion and public health interventions published from 1985 to the present
2. Conduct a comprehensive literature review and consult with 54 key practitioners in Canada to learn about how decisions are being made in these respective organizations, and to determine the best ways to summarize the results of reviews and disseminate findings
3. Consult with graphic design and marketing experts to assist with the preparation and marketing of dissemination material
4. Conduct 9 focus groups with practitioners to obtain their feedback on the dissemination strategy that was pilot tested in the fall of 2002 with Canadian decision makers, medical officers of health, public health managers and directors, health promotion mangers, and health policy makers at Canadian provincial and federal levels. A 2-page summary statements format was developed to synthesize the results of well-done systematic reviews and this summary format is being used to present the key findings of select reviews within the health-evidence.ca registry.
5. Identify public health and health promotion interventions that have not yet been systematically reviewed and begin to notify relevant funders of these gaps.
6. Evaluate knowledge transfer and exchange efforts on an ongoing basis and continue to work towards a national strategy for public health in Canada.