The Guide to Community Preventive Services Will Be Influential in Academic Health Centers: Education, Research and Links with Practice

“Evidence-based practice ” is a term that is takinghold in medicine. When lay people hear that weintend to base our practice on evidence, they often express surprise and ask, “Well, what have you been doing up to now? ” In both clinical medicine and public health, we have generally built programs and given services and advice based on individual judg-ments or professional consensus. We have lacked an educational commitment, a knowledge base and a practice ethic solidly grounded in research and evalu-ation. We have acted upon assertions, instead of rigor-ously-reviewed, evidence-based guidance about quality, effectiveness, cultural sensitivities and efficiency, let alone cost-effectiveness. And we have been oblivious to the heterogeneity of populations in causes of common illnesses, relevant risk factors, readiness to change behaviors or accept medical or public health interven