1. What is Evidence-Based Public Health?
Ross C. Brownson Saint Louis University School of Public Health May 14, Council for Training in Evidence-Based Behavioral Practice

2. “Public health workers… deserve to get somewhere by design, not just by perseverance.”
McKinlay and Marceau

3. What is “Evidence”? Scientific literature in systematic reviews
Objective
Scientific literature in systematic reviews
Scientific literature in one or more journal articles
Public health surveillance data
Program/policy evaluations
Qualitative data
Community members
Other stakeholders
Media/marketing data
Word of mouth
Personal experience
Subjective

5. Key Issues/Controversies
How do we address the variability in training in public health practice?
Only 22% of local public health leaders have graduate degrees in public health
How do we balance disciplinary skills (epidemiology, behavioral science) with cross-cutting skills (management, leadership)?
What should be the role of community involvement in shaping public health research & practice?
What constitutes acceptable evidence?

6. The effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials…. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.
Smith and Pell, BMJ, 2004

7. Key Issues/Controversies
Who should be trained?
Related organizational challenges
What is the “horizon” for success?
When we have evidence-based guidelines (e.g., the Community Guide), how do we ensure implementation?

8. Thank you!!