Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Health Evidence™ aims to help the public health workforce search for, interpret, and apply research evidence to practice via a free, searchable repository, www.healthevidence.org. This offers 4900+ quality-appraised systematic reviews evaluating the effectiveness of public health and health promotion interventions. One strategy to communicate and share the findings from these systematic reviews is through author-led interactive webinars.
Objectives:
1) To disseminate high quality evidence to the public health workforce.
2) To provide a forum for public health professionals to improve individual and organizational capacity for evidence-informed public health.
Methods: Eight 60- to 90-minute author-led webinar sessions were conducted between January and December 2017. Each session included a brief overview of evidence-informed decision making, followed by a presentation of the review findings by one of the authors, and concluded with a facilitated discussion period. Web conferencing software was used to monitor registration, attendance, audience engagement and satisfaction. Webinars were open to the public and widely promoted via newsletters and social media, as well as on the Health Evidence website.
Results: Health Evidence hosted eight webinars in 2017 on a variety of public health topic areas. The average webinar attendance across the series was 120 participants per webinar. Webinar recordings were posted to YouTube approximately one week post-webinar and received an average of 49 views in the month following the posted date. Access to the Health Evidence review pages for the systematic reviews highlighted in the webinar increased by 890% on the day of the webinar compared to a one-month period before the webinar was promoted. Overall, 83% of respondents agreed, or strongly agreed, that the information in the webinar was helpful in their work, and almost half of polling question respondents indicated they would consider using the evidence in their program/policy/practice.
Conclusions: Webinars are an innovative and effective mechanism for promoting research evidence in public-health decision making to wide audiences.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Webinar participants can engage with the author-presenter during the webinar in the chat box as well as through a chat-based facilitated question and answer period.
Objectives:
1) To disseminate high quality evidence to the public health workforce.
2) To provide a forum for public health professionals to improve individual and organizational capacity for evidence-informed public health.
Methods: Eight 60- to 90-minute author-led webinar sessions were conducted between January and December 2017. Each session included a brief overview of evidence-informed decision making, followed by a presentation of the review findings by one of the authors, and concluded with a facilitated discussion period. Web conferencing software was used to monitor registration, attendance, audience engagement and satisfaction. Webinars were open to the public and widely promoted via newsletters and social media, as well as on the Health Evidence website.
Results: Health Evidence hosted eight webinars in 2017 on a variety of public health topic areas. The average webinar attendance across the series was 120 participants per webinar. Webinar recordings were posted to YouTube approximately one week post-webinar and received an average of 49 views in the month following the posted date. Access to the Health Evidence review pages for the systematic reviews highlighted in the webinar increased by 890% on the day of the webinar compared to a one-month period before the webinar was promoted. Overall, 83% of respondents agreed, or strongly agreed, that the information in the webinar was helpful in their work, and almost half of polling question respondents indicated they would consider using the evidence in their program/policy/practice.
Conclusions: Webinars are an innovative and effective mechanism for promoting research evidence in public-health decision making to wide audiences.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Webinar participants can engage with the author-presenter during the webinar in the chat box as well as through a chat-based facilitated question and answer period.