A unique approach to extend the reach of Cochrane reviews to public health practitioners: the Cancer Control

Article type
Authors
Prabhu Das I, Vinson C
Abstract
Background: The systematic evidence review synthesizes the scope of relevant research to inform public health practitioners about what works, what does not, and where evidence is insufficient. Cancer control practitioners require access to evidence reviews for implementing evidence-based public health (EBPH). While evidence reviews are useful in accelerating the adoption of EBPH in public health settings (Brownson 2009), practitioners often do not have full-text access to these reviews if they are not affiliated with a university or medical center. Objectives: To: i) develop a unique approach that will allow cancer control practitioners full-text access to Cochrane reviews; and ii) integrate Cochrane reviews as an additional source of evidence reviews into the existing web portal. Methods: The Designing for Dissemination Team at the US National Cancer Institute explored with Wiley-Blackwell the feasibility of providing full-text access to Cochrane reviews via the web portal, Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T. (Plan, Link, Act, Network with Evidence-based Tools). Based on an earlier P.L.A.N.E.T. evaluation, users of the P.L.A.N.E.T. were more likely to obtain information from the P.L.A.N.E.T. than from other websites and 69% reported using the Guide to Community Preventive Services. P.L.A.N.E.T. list-serve enrollees were defined as the targeted user group to have access to the full-text Cochrane reviews. A series of steps followed that included drafting of the project proposal for Wiley’s review that led to determining the appropriate monitored access via the web portal, defining the site license agreement while planning the integration of Cochrane reviews on the P.L.A.N.E.T. web page. Results: This project is expected to be complete by the time of the Cochrane Colloquium. Conclusions: We will present the structure of the CCP and how list-serve enrollees will access the reviews via the CCP. In addition, we will explain the process of establishing the agreement and share the implications of this approach for evidence-based public health practice.