Evidence for Health. from Patient Choice to Global Policy

Description

Evidence for Health: From Patient Choice to Global Policy is a practical guide to evidence-informed decision-making. It provides health practitioners and policy-makers with a broad overview of how to improve health and reduce health inequities, as well as the tools needed to make informed decisions that will have a positive influence on health. Chapters address questions such as: What are the major threats to health? What are the causes of poor health? What works to improve health? How do we know that it works? What are the barriers to implementation? What are the measures of success? The book provides an algorithm for arriving at evidence-informed decisions that take into consideration the multiple contextual factors and value judgements involved. Written by a specialist in public health with a wealth of international experience, this user-friendly guide demystifies the decision-making process, from personal decisions made by individual patients to global policy decisions.

Features

• Explains why evidence is useful, how it is produced and how it should be communicated, helping readers make informed decisions about health
• Addresses decision making from the personal decisions that individual patients make about their own health to global policy decisions that can impact the health of millions of people worldwide
• Provides an algorithm that uses a series of questions for arriving at evidence-informed decisions, putting the concepts of evidence-based decision making into practice

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
About the author
1. Introduction
2. Strategies for improving health
3. Understanding how decisions influence health
4. Producing evidence to inform health decisions
5. Facilitators and barriers to using evidence
6. Making evidence-informed decisions
7. Conclusion
Index.