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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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(2010 results)

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Complex Care Program (Washington, D.C.)

Local

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

Goal: CCP aims to provide ongoing comprehensive care coordination to children with medically complex, chronic conditions within Children's National health care system.

Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program (Washington, D.C.)

Local

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

Goal: The Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program values early diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) with a goal of making screening for CHD a standard practice for all newborns.

Impact: The physicians at Children's National in the National Heart Institute created a toolkit that nurseries may use to start a screening program to improve detection of serious CHD.

Cooking Matters at the Store (Washington D.C.)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Families

Goal: Cooking Matters seeks to teach families to stretch their food budgets so their children are fed healthy and nutritious meals at home.

Impact: Graduates of Cooking Matters at the Store learn how to compare food labels, read ingredients lists, and identify healthy food choices that fit their budget.

School Services Data Sharing Project (Washington, D.C.)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of the data sharing project is to allow for continuity of care of admitted children from hospital to school and to decrease readmissions of the children to the hospital.

Sleeve Gastrectomy in Adolescents with Morbid Obesity (Washington, D.C.)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of sleeve gastrectomy in adolescents with morbid obesity is to provide a safe, minimally invasive surgical solution to weight loss when modifications to exercise and diet fail.

Special Edition Sickle Cell Newscast (District of Columbia)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The objective of the Special Edition Sickle Cell Newscast is to increase the public's awareness of Sickle Cell Disease and to train lifelong advocates for SCD among the teen population.

Children's National Food Allergy School Nurse Education Program (Washington, DC)

Local

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens

Goal: The Children's National Food Allergy School Nurse Education Program seeks to increase knowledge about childhood food allergy through a standardized educational curriculum.

Impact: The Children's National Food Allergy School Nurse Education Program significantly increased the percent of nurses in the District of Columbia who believed students were teased or bullied due to food allergy and felt food allergy was a serious health concern for which schools should have guidelines.

Mailed Psychoeducational Intervention for Colorectal Cancer Screening (England)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve colorectal cancer screening rates among older adults.

Impact: Participants in the intervention group had significantly higher colorectal cancer screening attendance, as well as having more positive attitudes about screening and placing a higher priority on screening.

Be Proud! Be Responsible! (Philadelphia, PA and Trenton, NJ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Urban

Goal: The curricula aim to increase participants' knowledge about the risks of various behaviors and educate participants on how condoms and/or abstinence can effectively be used to lower those risks.

Pathways to Housing, Inc. (NYC, DC, Philadelphia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Pathways to Housing, Inc. is to provide independent housing, treatment services for physical and mental health, and employment to mentally ill individuals who are chronically homeless.

Impact: Pathways to Housing has received numerous awards for its projects in New York City, Philadelphia, and D.C. In addition to achieving large effects in terms of housing outcomes, compared with standard care in the community, Housing First also improves community functioning and quality of life.

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.