Global leaders unite for World Evidence-Based Healthcare Day

Seven global leaders in evidence-based healthcare, including the University of Adelaide’s JBI, have joined forces to raise awareness for better evidence to inform healthcare policy, practice and decision making to improve global health outcomes.

JBI is joined by Cochrane, Campbell, Guidelines International Network (GIN), the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in launching the campaign for World Evidence-Based Healthcare (EBHC) Day 2022, Partnerships for Purpose.

World EBHC Day Committee Chair Bianca Pilla said the global evidence community has recognised that collaboration is the key to producing trustworthy, pragmatic evidence.

“The global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of evidence-based healthcare and the need for partnerships in developing rapid evidence-informed responses, streamlining global efforts, reducing research waste, and ensuring the best-available evidence is accessible, transparent and understood,” Ms Pilla said.

“The scale of national and international collaboration triggered by COVID-19 has surpassed all historical precedents.

“While many partnerships existed before the pandemic, there has been an extraordinary increase in new and innovative partnerships and collaboration between regulators, governments, scientists and researchers, healthcare providers, technology giants and consumer groups.

“There is a growing concern, which was heightened during the pandemic, about making partnerships and collaboration equitable for - and beneficial to - all partners. Although willingness to collaborate has increased, vested interests, bureaucracy and inability to change remain limiting factors.”

“There is a strong ethical imperative for groups like JBI to work with global partners to ensure the best evidence is available to inform decision-making."The University of Adelaide's JBI Executive Director, Zoe Jordan

JBI Executive Director Professor Zoe Jordan added: “There is a strong ethical imperative for groups like JBI to work with global partners to ensure the best evidence is available to inform decision-making. 

“Despite the grave difficulties associated with working remotely across geographically dispersed groups and time zones, the pandemic has also highlighted the significant benefits of these relationships and made us acutely aware of the need to find ways of supporting each other for the common good.”

World EBHC Day 2022 seeks to raise awareness, stimulate debate and shine a light on best practice in the science and art of working in partnership to bridge research, policy and practice, and realise the potential of evidence-based healthcare.

World EBHC Day is an initiative of JBI – a global organisation promoting and supporting evidence-based decisions that improve health and health service delivery - and is held on 20 October every year. For more information, please visit https://worldebhcday.org