The EIDM Casebook: Issue 3
Do you or your team have a success story involving evidence-informed decision making (EIDM)?
If so, we would love to hear from you!
Call for Abstracts
The National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT) is pleased to announce that we are assembling a third collection of evidence-informed decision making (EIDM) success stories in public health. Following the success of the first two issues of the EIDM Casebook, we invite individuals and organizations to submit abstracts describing efforts to achieve EIDM in public health practice, programs and policy. Be a part of this growing collection of selected success stories that illustrates what EIDM looks like across the country.
Abstract Submission
The call for abstracts will remain open until Friday, March 29, 2019.
Click here to download the abstract submission template. Submissions can be sent to nccmt@mcmaster.ca.
Making the Case for the Casebook
Selected cases will be featured in the NCCMT’s online EIDM Casebook. A story will be showcased each month in the NCCMT’s Round-up Newsletter. Authors may also be invited to present their stories as part of the NCCMT’s Peer-to-peer webinar series. Submit your story to establish yourself as an EIDM leader within your team and organization and contribute to the field of knowledge translation.
The EIDM Casebook also helps build new partnerships and connections. An author of a Casebook story has noted that since publication of their story, they have received expressions of interest to present on their work and to collaborate from across Canada and internationally.
For more information on how to submit an abstract for consideration in the EIDM Casebook, please review the Eligibility Criteria and Selection Process below.
The focus of the case story must be on a change initiative to implement evidence-informed decision making (EIDM) in public health. Whether your story is about a practice change within your team or a large-scale change initiative across multiple practice areas, lessons learned from your initiative could be useful to others.
A change initiative is defined here as a strategy, intervention or program that supports the EIDM process in practice, policy and decision making. An EIDM practice change initiative may be intended to address an issue at the individual, organization or systems levels. Examples of EIDM practice change initiatives could include:
- implementing a strategic initiative to develop organizational capacity for EIDM;
- promoting the uptake of the best available evidence into practice (i.e., best practice guidelines, systematic reviews); and
- applying policy-influence strategies to get the best available evidence integrated into the policy process.
For examples of what has been accepted previously, please see Issues One and Two of the EIDM Casebook.
Send us a 300- to 500-word structured abstract (see template) written in either English or French. Preference will be given to applicants who include an evaluation (plan or completed) and/or a description of the impact of their activities. An external and internal committee will review and score the applications and make decisions regarding inclusion in the casebook.
Your abstract must include a short description of your initiative and explain how it meets the following eligibility criteria:
- The goal of the initiative was to achieve EIDM in public health.
- The initiative shows potential to impact the public health community.
Applicants may submit multiple abstracts, though only one abstract per organization will be accepted. The NCCMT will consider submissions from individuals, teams or organizations. We are interested in stories about EIDM change initiatives in any public health topic area drawn from public health staff, managers, policy makers, researchers or students. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a more fulsome description of their story (3–5 pages), and will be provided with guidelines for completing their submission.
Evaluation Criteria
Please note that the criteria below are suggestions for what your abstract may focus on; you need not cover every subject area listed below.
Describe the problem your team faced using clear support
- What is the local, provincial or national significance of this issue?
- Where did the problem originate, or what led to its identification?
- How has it evolved?
- How has the problem impacted your organization?
- Who (which population) is affected by this issue?
- How are they affected by this issue?
- What other relevant problems/burdens/threats are associated with this issue (health outcomes, budgets, etc.)?
- Is there a business imperative or strategic advantage for addressing the problem?
- Is this an equity issue?
- Does this initiative address an important problem or critical barrier to progress in the field?
- Is it topical or relevant to current public health gaps/priorities?
Describe the efforts (intervention/program/strategy) your team took to address the problem
- Describe your initiative’s project objective(s).
- What outcomes were your team aiming for?
- Provide a full description of the initiative, so that it could be replicated by others
- What were the components of the initiative?
- What were the components of the initiative?
- What was the scope of the initiative?
- What was the target population of the initiative?
- Was the initiative influenced by available, relevant, direct evidence?
- What was the source of the evidence?
- What was the quality of the evidence?
- Was the initiative influenced by a theory or model?
- How was theory used to develop the initiative? Which model or theory was used?
- How were your efforts intended to bring about change?
- Were any assumptions made regarding causal mechanisms of change?
Describe the implementation of your initiative
- Was your organization ready for the change?
- Did this initiative represent a change in organizational direction or priority
- Was the initiative piloted on a small scale or for a limited time before being scaled up?
- Was pilot/feasibility testing used to make improvements to the initiative?
- Describe the implementation process.
- What, if any, structural or process changes were undertaken to implement the initiative?
- What resources were needed to implement the initiative?
- Who led or was involved in the implementation of the initiative?
- How was the initiative delivered?
- Was the initiative implemented as originally planned? If not, what revisions were made to the implementation plan?
- What steps were taken to support the initiative?
- Did your team encounter any barriers while implementing the initiative? How were these barriers assessed and addressed?
- Were any methods or tools used to facilitate implementation?
- Is there a plan in place to sustain the initiative?
Describe your team’s evaluation methods and results
- Describe the methods your team used to monitor and evaluate both the initiative and its implementation.
- Which measures/constructs were used?
- Which data collection methods were used?
- What were your time points for evaluation (e.g., baseline and 6-month follow-up)?
- Provide a summary of the evaluation results (e.g., impact, reach, use, etc.).
Reflect on your team’s process and outcomes of change initiative
- Briefly describe your initiative’s successes.
- How can your team expand upon the success(es) of this initiative?
- Identify the steps that did not go as well as planned.
- Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
- What advice would you give to other teams interested in undertaking a similar initiative?
