The Science and Practice of Applied Public Health.

Over the last 2 decades considerable progress has been made in developing the evidence base for public health practice and learning how to best disseminate these approaches. Evidencebased practice has been embraced in many healthrelated disciplines and much can be learned from the experience in clinical medicine. While significant challenges and undesired practices remain, a welldeveloped culture and norm of evidence-based medical practice has been developed over the last 2 decades that has helped balance traditional reliance on clinical experience with evidence from clinical research. Evidence-based practice is now the core of medical training both in the classroom and at the bedside. As a result, medical practices have ready access to the scientific literature, previously widespread physician detailing by industry has been discredited and curtailed, and information systems like electronic health records have been tailored and improved to prompt evidencebased action and access to practice guidelines. The practice of evidence-based public health faces challenges and opportunities relative to medical practice. Public health studies are inherently more difficult to design. They frequently rely on the interpretation of natural experiments and may involve multiple blended interventions within a community of diverse and often disparate groups. However, while they are challenging to study and evaluate, public health approaches also allow creativity that ultimately makes their application in community settings more relevant and productive. Few professionals would dispute the importance of evidence-based practice. Significant improvements in public health can be credited to the successful implementation of scientifically driven interventions that have had significant population impact. To achieve state and national objectives for improved population health, more widespread adoption of evidence-based