Promoting evidence-based public health policy: can we have better evidence and more action?

Evidence-based approaches (those explicitly linked to the best available scientific evidence and reflecting community preferences and feasibility) are increasingly used to inform health policy decision making on the burden of a disease attributable to particular causes, interventions and policies that might work to confront those causes, and issues of community fit and feasibility. This paper introduces several tools for evidence-based public health: the health impact assessment, the systematic review, and a portfolio for assuring community fit and feasibility. Discussion of these tools serves as a springboard to consider how to better bring scientific evidence to bear on real-life health issues.