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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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The CARES Program (Buffalo, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the CARES program is to decrease barriers and improve access to dental care.

The Green Cart Initiative (New York City, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Green Cart Initiative is to improve healthy food options for residents of New York.

The Maine Cardiovascular Health (CVH) Program (Maine)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in Maine.

The Missouri Cardiovascular Health (CVH) Program (Missouri)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve standards of care for patients with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in Missouri.

The New Jersey State Cancer Registry (New Jersey)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage early detection of breast cancer among diverse populations in New Jersey. When breast cancer is diagnosed at a local stage, 97% of women still are alive 5 years later. The 5-year survival rate decreases to 21% when the disease is diagnosed after it has spread to other sites.

Training Caregivers of Stroke Victims (England)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of the training program is to provide skills essential for the daily management of stroke survivors.

Treatment Foster Care Oregon (Eugene, OR)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Teens

Goal: The goal of the TFCO program is to decrease problem behavior and to increase developmentally appropriate normative and prosocial behavior in children and adolescents who are in need of out-of-home placement.

Impact: When compared with the control group, TFCO youths spent 60% fewer days in incarceration, had significantly fewer subsequent arrests, and had significantly less hard-drug use.

Utah Skin and Colon Cancer Media Campaigns (Utah)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer

Goal: The goal of these media campaigns was to increase awareness of cancer prevention, protection, and early detection.

Water Jets in School Cafeterias (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to improve access to fresh drinking water as a calorie-free beverage option in select NYC school cafeterias at lunchtime.

A Population Health Approach to Clinical Social Work with Complex Patients in Primary Care (Portland, Maine)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Other Conditions

Goal: Patients with the highest medical and social vulnerability require a population-specific social work intervention in primary care to achieve positive medical outcomes and to decrease inefficient use of services, especially inpatient admissions and ED visits.

Impact: The study exhibits promise in decreasing inpatient visits and cost. The evidence also supports population-specific social work interventions integrated in primary care.

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.