Evidence into practice: combining the art and science of injury prevention

To bring together scientific evidence of what works in injury prevention with the knowledge and experience of practitioners, using a case study of smoke alarm installation from England.

There is good evidence of strategies to reduce injuries but less is known about the art of translating those strategies to implementation in real-world settings. England's Health Development Agency developed a structured process applicable to many public health fields, which integrates practitioner knowledge into the evidence base and reflects local contexts. The multistep process includes convening structured field meetings with local practitioners and policy makers, which focus on a mapping exercise of strategies, policies, targets, and funding streams related to childhood injury prevention, and barriers and facilitators relating to implementation of specific interventions.

Meetings were held in six venues across England with 98 participants from a range of professional backgrounds and sectors.

The collective knowledge of participants provided many local insights unlikely to emerge in conventional research. Discussion topics covered key partners and sectors to include when planning a program; national policies and programs that could be used to drive the agenda; potential sources of funding; the importance of providing and installing appropriate smoke alarms; targeting of programs; and suggestions for gaining access to hard-to-reach populations.

This methodology represents an efficient way of gaining insight necessary for successful implementation of evidence based programs. It may be particularly useful in lower and middle income countries, serving to translate evidence into the local contexts and circumstances within which practitioners operate.