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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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inSPOT (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of inSPOT is to improve STD partner notification by providing online resources including electronic postcards.

Jail Linkage Project (Pinellas County, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of the Jail Linkage Project is to connect the incarcerated population with health care screening and prevention services.

Keep It Up (New York, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Keep It Up is to provide health screening and preventative care to Black men to promote HIV prevention and other health problems.

Latino Commission on AIDS (New York City, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The Latino Commission on AIDS focuses its efforts on HIV/AIDS in the Latino community through health advocacy, promoting HIV education, developing model prevention programs for high-risk communities, and building capacity in community organization.

Impact: As the only provider of Spanish language HIV treatment, the Latino Commission on AIDS has created a model of public health that uses training, outreach, prevention and culturally sensitive care for Latinos living with HIV/AIDS.

Less Talk and More Action -- Protecting Seniors Against West Nile Virus (Yavapai, AZ)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Older Adults

Goal: This program aims to protect seniors against West Nile virus exposure.

Living in the Face of Trauma (LIFT)

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

Goal: Eliminate or reduce sexual transmission risk behavior and to improve coping with the combined stressors of HIV infection and child sexual abuse.

Impact: LIFT intervention participants reported significantly fewer counts of unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse with all partners (p < .001) and with HIV-negative or unknown serostatus partners (p < .001), compared to support group participants.

Maryland Prevention Case Management (Maryland)

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

Goal: The goal of Maryland's Prevention Case Management program is to decrease HIV transmission following release from prison.

Massachusetts Local Board of Health Emergency Operations Plan Template (Massachussetts)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of this program is to help local public health organizations to prepare for public health emergencies.

MHD-MWW Water Quality Technical Workgroup (Milwaukee, WI)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban

Goal: The overriding goal of the workgroup is to develop, institute and evaluate preventive measures (e.g. procedures, protocols and policies) that would mitigate the impact of any future waterborne disease incidents. Post 9/11, the workgroup has evolved to include discussions on water security in the context of an intentional contamination event.

Minority AIDS Project (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The Minority AIDS Project's mission is to reduce suffering and deaths due to HIV infection in the African-American and Latino communities by making HIV/AIDS education and related health services available and accessible.

Impact: The Minority AIDS Project provides services and outreach efforts to predominantly African-American and Latino individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the underserved communities of Central and South Central Los Angeles.

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.