World EBHC Day launches campaign to address global health challenges through partnerships for purpose

Cochrane, JBI, Campbell, GIN, the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, and NICE recently launched the World Evidence-Based Healthcare (EBHC) Day 2022 campaign, ‘Partnerships for Purpose’. 

Held on 20 October each year, World EBHC Day is a global initiative that raises awareness of the need for better evidence to inform healthcare policy, practice and decision making in order to improve health outcomes globally. It is an opportunity to participate in debate about global trends and challenges, but also to celebrate the impact of individuals and organisations worldwide, recognising the work of dedicated researchers, policymakers and health professionals in improving health outcomes.

The 2022 campaign aims to examine partnerships and practical considerations around establishing different types of partnerships, accelerating innovation, ensuring equity and integrity, overcoming challenges and biases, lessons learned and achieving impact for improved health outcomes globally.

As Bianca Pilla, World EBHC Day Committee Chair, explains: 

"The global evidence community has long recognised that collaboration is 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"

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, tech giants and consumer groups – many of which were written about in the blogs published for World EBHC Day 2021.

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. Around the globe, organisations have set up networks, task forces and working groups to coordinate efforts and overcome some of these challenges.

Cochrane’s Editor in Chief, Dr Karla Soares-Weiser says, 

"Partnerships are at the heart of evidence-informed healthcare, and I am very proud of the work Cochrane does with our partners. As a global evidence community, we know that we need to work together to coordinate efforts and make the best use of limited resources. Working together is also an opportunity to listen to and learn from other perspectives, ultimately to benefit the health of all worldwide. I look forward to the discussions that this year’s World EBHC Day campaign on partnerships for purpose will generate."

Led by JBI, 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 calls on individuals and organisations around the world to take action as we lead up to World EBHC Day on 20 October. Everyone is invited to  contribute to the global discussion on how to partner for purpose to address global health challenges.

For all the details visit World EBHC Day