Evidence-Informed Decision Making – Process and Results to Inform a Breast Feeding Program in a Public Health Department

Objective:

To describe the process, demonstrate tools used, and discuss evidence-informed decision making in the context of a breast feeding program at the Region of Peel Public Health in Ontario.

 Target Groups:

Public Health managers and practitioners, as well as knowledge translation and research staff in local public health units across Canada.

Activities:     

Public health managers and practitioners strive to make program decisions that address locally-relevant health issues and that reflect the best available evidence. Health Evidence provides evidence-related support to local Health Units and hosts Health-evidence.ca - an online repository of public health relevant evidence for the Canadian context. Using an example of a collaboration with Health Evidence and the Region of Peel Public Health we will describe the application of the evidence informed decision making (EIDM) process to address a particular program situation. We will describe the following EIDM steps: developing a research question and appropriate search strategy, screening results, critically appraising relevant papers, and interpretation of the evidence and assessing local applicability. We will also discuss resources and tools used including health-evidence.ca, the Public Health and Health Evidence staff roles, and the concluding recommendations and program related decisions and implications.

Deliverables:

Participants will understand the framework, the resources and tools used, and the process of evidence-informed decision making using a real-life example related to a breast feeding program in the Region of Peel Public Health in Ontario. The final recommendations related to program decisions will be presented.