A model to translate evidence-based interventions into community practice

There is a tension between 2 alternative approaches to implementing community-based interventions. The evidence-based public health movement emphasizes the scientific basis of prevention by disseminating rigorously evaluated interventions from academic and governmental agencies to local communities. Models used by local health departments to incorporate community input into their planning, such as the community health improvement process (CHIP), emphasize community leadership in identifying health problems and developing and implementing health improvement strategies. Each approach has limitations. Modifying CHIP to formally include consideration of evidence-based interventions in both the planning and evaluation phases leads to an evidence-driven community health improvement process that can serve as a useful framework for uniting the different approaches while emphasizing community ownership, priorities, and wisdom.