AN APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY-HEALTH INTERVENTIONS

The Community Health Practice Guidelines (CHPG) project was initiated to develop a systematic approach to the critical evaluation of evidenc e on the effectiveness and efficiency of community health intervention s and to the formulation of evidence-based practice recommendations. T hree community health interventions - immunization delivery methods, p artner notification for sexually transmitted diseases and the combinat ion of restaurant inspection and education of food handlers - were use d as prototypes to develop a standardized approach. The CHPG process c onsists of three components: a review of scientific evidence, a practi ce survey and formulation of practice guidelines. Imperatives for furt her development of the CHPG and define research priorities process inc lude creating a coalition of public health organizations to sponsor th e process and refining the consensus process so that the practice guid elines accurately reflect both the scientific basis of public health p ractice and the values of those affected.