The updated Joanna Briggs Institute Model of Evidence-Based Healthcare

Abstract

Background: The Joanna Briggs Institute Model for Evidence-Based Healthcare was first conceptualized in 2005. This developmental framework for evidence-based practice situated healthcare evidence, in its broadest sense, and its role and use within complex healthcare settings. The Model was recently reviewed with a view to understanding its utility by health professionals, researchers and policy makers, and the analysis revealed a need to reconsider the composition and language of the Model to ensure its currency on the international stage.

Main body: The current article proposes a revised Joanna Briggs Institute Model for consideration by the international community. It seeks to clarify the conceptual integration of evidence generation, synthesis, transfer and implementation, linking how these occur with the necessarily challenging dynamics that contribute to whether translation of evidence into policy and practice is successful. It also accounts for the role of different types of evidence, both research and text and opinion, and how evidence contributes to achieving improved health outcomes globally. In addition, it is centered on the importance of accounting for evidence of feasibility, appropriateness, meaningfulness and effectiveness.

Conclusion: The Model has been an important part of the Institute's development, both from a scientific and organizational perspective. Given the changing international discourse relating to evidence and its translation into policy and practice over the course of the last decade, it was opportune to revisit the Model and assess its ongoing applicability in its current form. Some alterations have been made for consideration in the hope that the Model reflects the Institute's current conceptualization of evidence-based healthcare (EBHC) and to increase its relevance and use pragmatically.