Defining best practice in healthcare
EBP, CPGs, standard of care: What is the difference?
A scoping review is underway to map and define terminology around ‘best practice’. Numerous models and frameworks exist to help healthcare providers integrate the best evidence into clinical care. To enhance research acceptance, it is important to identify the best available evidence for practitioners to implement. The World Health Organization recognises the importance of equipping healthcare providers to navigate a wealth of overlapping and variable-quality evidence.
However, practitioners often struggle to keep up with rapidly evolving healthcare knowledge, investing substantial time and energy into determining "best practice" derived from evidence. The term "best practice" is often used interchangeably with "good practice," "evidence-based practice," "evidence-based guidelines/clinical practice guidelines," or "standard of care." It can be determined at the government level or within an organisation and derived from various sources such as systematic reviews, health technology assessments, and guideline recommendations.
Best practice typically refers to strategies, approaches, or activities proven through research and evaluation to be effective, efficient, sustainable, and reliably leading to desired results. Some view best practice not as a specific practice but as an integrative process to embed research-based knowledge into healthcare.
Governments face challenges in developing public health policies reflecting best practices due to a lack of consensus on how to collect and develop them. In EU member states, efforts focus on primary and secondary research on healthcare interventions' potential effects. However, research alone is insufficient; results must be disseminated, implemented, and monitored to assess effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Given the potential proliferation of different concepts related to best practice, a study is underway which aims to map and define the terminology and methodology in the literature. It seeks to increase consistency in healthcare terminology and identify gaps, overlaps, limitations, and differences in definitions and development methods, benefiting developers, practitioners, and policymakers in Italy.
The scoping review protocol is available in the October issue of JBI Evidence Synthesis
Exploring the definition and methodology of “best practice” in the health care literature: a scoping review protocol
Fauci, Alice Josephine; D’Angelo, Daniela; Coclite, Daniela; Napoletano, Antonello; Gianola, Silvia; Ferrara, Carla; Di Nitto, Marco; Gensini, Gianfranco
JBI Evidence Synthesis 21(10):p 2134-2141, October 2023. | DOI: 10.11124/JBIES-23-00046