MetroDoctors Guest Post: The Community Guide
Getting the Word Out About The Community Guide
Have you heard of The Community Guide? Have you used this resource to identify or select intervention approaches to improve population health?
Healthcare providers play a critical role in protecting and improving the health of communities. In addition to participating in programs that screen for, prevent, and manage a range of health conditions, healthcare providers inform and influence healthcare system policies and practices that affect population health. The Community Guide is a valuable resource for evidence-based intervention approaches that healthcare providers can use to improve health in their communities.
Jeanette St. Pierre, MPH, MA, Lead Health Communication Specialist, Partnership and Dissemination Team, Community Guide Program, Office of Scientific Evidence and Recommendations, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Krista Hopkins Cole, MPH, Health Communication Specialist, Cherokee Nation Operational Solutions
The Community Guide Website
Find Interventions That Work!
The Community Guide is searchable by public health topic, level of evidence, or year.
Healthcare providers may be interested in:
Interventions that engage community health workers
Patient navigation services to increase breast cancer, cervical cancer, and colorectal cancer screening
Team-based care to improve blood pressure control and diabetes management
The Community Guide website houses more than 250 active evidence-based recommendations and findings of the Community Preventive Task Force (CPSTF) for intervention approaches that address more than 20 public health topics. CPSTF bases their recommendations and findings on systematic reviews of evidence of effectiveness and economic impact. For each finding, CPSTF considers information about the intervention approach, implementation, and evidence gaps that could be filled through additional research and evaluation. All this information is accessible on The Community Guide website along with resources, such as screening tools and success stories, that can help with putting CPSTF recommendations and findings into practice.
Digital Communications
CPSTF uses digital communication tools to disseminate their recommendations and findings and promote The Community Guide among public health practitioners, healthcare providers, and decision-makers.
Email Subscriber Lists
The Community Guide uses more than 20 email subscription lists to reach public health practitioners, healthcare providers, and other interested individuals nationally. Subscribers can choose to receive general news and announcements or topic-specific information.
Social Media
Social media allows CPSTF to share their recommendations and findings as soon as they are available and to promote Community Guide products. The social media strategy involves routinely posting tweets on CPSTF Twitter and sharing messages with CDC programs and other partners who post them on their social media platforms (including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter). CPSTF members who are active on social media also share information about their work and The Community Guide.
Through social media, the Community Guide seeks to reach decision makers who work with businesses, faith-based organizations, healthcare systems, public health clinics and departments, schools, the U.S. military, and other groups. To amplify messaging about public health topics and connect them to relevant CPSTF recommendations and findings, CPSTF Twitter routinely engages with tweets posted by CDC programs and other partners.
Working With Partners
CPSTF is supported by 32 liaison agencies and organizations that represent the views, concerns, and needs of their members and constituents from development through implementation of CPSTF recommendations and findings. Liaisons routinely disseminate and promote the use of CPSTF recommendations and findings through their digital channels. They post messages on their Twitter profiles and LinkedIn pages, include content in their newsletters, cross link and provide information on their websites, and send email notices to their members. The Community Guide also collaborates with liaisons to develop content for blog posts and webinars.
CDC programs play an important role in disseminating the CPSTF recommendations and findings among their partners, using their digital channels. CDC programs incorporate CPSTF recommendations into their programmatic initiatives and funding opportunities and create implementation resources to enhance the use of effective interventions in practice.
Take Advantage of The Community Guide
Consider ways you and your organization can benefit from The Community Guide. Use it to plan new programs or enhance existing ones, prioritize funding, develop policies, mobilize communities, or inform research proposals. You might also educate students and new professionals about how The Community Guide can help them in their practice.
Learn More About CPSTF
CPSTF was established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1996. The task force is an independent, nonfederal panel of public health and prevention experts that provides recommendations and findings on programs, services, and other interventions to protect and improve population health. Their recommendations and findings are based on evidence from Community Guide systematic reviews of effectiveness and economic evidence of specific intervention approaches to address public health issues. CSPTF uses consistent, transparent, and scientifically rigorous methods and considers health equity in all reviews.
Access Resources
Fact sheets that summarize CPSTF recommendations and findings for public health topics.
Community Guide in Action Stories that describe how CPSTF recommendations have been used in communities and other settings.
CPSTF Annual Reports to Congress that summarize recommendations and findings issued in the fiscal year, evidence gaps identified, and priority topics for future reviews.