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Promising Practices

The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.

The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.

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Refugee Health Assessment Program (Miami Dade County, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Urban

Goal: The mission of the RHAP is to protect the health of the general population and to improve the health status of refugees so they may achieve self-sufficiency.

Rikers Health Advocacy Program (New York)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Men, Urban

Goal: The mission of the Rikers Health Advocacy Program is to provide an intensive AIDS education designed to reduce HIV risk behaviors for incarcerated adolescent male drug users.

Safety Counts (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Women, Men

Goal: The goal of the Safety Counts is to reduce behaviors which place drug users at a high risk of HIV infection.

Syphilis Elimination Effort (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce syphilis prevalence in the United States and eliminate the syphilis health disparity.

Targeted Outreach for Women Act (Florida)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Women's Health, Women

Goal: The goal of the Targeted Outreach for Pregnant Women Act is to improve prenatal care among high risk and HIV-positive pregnant women in order to reduce the number of babies born with HIV-infection and prenatal drug exposure.

Targeted TB Testing and Treatment Program (Suffolk County, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce rates of TB among foreign-born populations and to increase rates of treatment for latent TB infection.

Targeted Tuberculosis Screening in Tarrant County (Tarrant County, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent the spread of tuberculosis among the homeless population.

Text Reminders for Immunization Compliance in Kids (TRICKs): A Demonstration Project (Wichita, KS)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of TRICKs was to reach out to parents using a novel reminder system and increase immunization rates at the KU pediatric clinic.

Impact: There was a significant increase in immunization rate following the implementation of parent text reminders when compared to the initial immunization rate.

The Michigan Antibiotic Resistance Reduction (MARR) Coalition (Michigan)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The Michigan Antibiotic Resistance Reduction Coalition (MARR) seeks to improve the use of antimicrobial agents and reduce antimicrobial resistance rates in health care facilities and communities throughout the state of Michigan through the collaborative efforts of academic, community, government, labor and industry partners. MARR seeks to accomplish this mission by serving as a catalyst and facilitator for programs of judicious antimicrobial use, and providing such programs; maintaining a repository of current and credible information about antimicrobial resistance; and participating in clinical interventions and research that will ensure improved antimicrobial use and reduce antimicrobial resistance.

The PanAfrican Acupuncture Project (Brookline, MA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alternative Medicine

Goal: The goal of the PanAfrican Acupuncture Project is to train locals in acupuncture techniques so that they can use this alternative healing method in their communities to treat symptoms of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success and/or promise in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures of improvement in outcome of interest (i.e. increase in voter registration, not just delivery of voter registration drive) and/ or the outcome measure is increased or improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant.

A Good Idea meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. The program evaluation is limited to descriptive measure(s) of success/accomplishment (i.e., program participation rates, number of services/education sessions/radio messages provided). Note: oftentimes, the program has been newly implemented and a program evaluation has not yet been conducted. Programs that have not yet been evaluated, but which show promise in improving health or quality of life, are classified as Good Ideas until an evaluation is conducted.

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.
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