Guidebook on Best Practices in Public Health

Annex A. MCDA methodology

This Annex outlines the MCDA frameworks used to identify the set of draft criteria and indicators for public health interventions. Frameworks were identified through a narrative literature review and included:

• Model for Assessment of Telemedicine Applications – telemedicine

• EUnetHTA model – health technology assessments

• RE‑AIM model – public and population health

• CDC Conceptual Framework for planning and improving evidence‑based practices – public health

• EVIDEM (Evidence and Value: Impact on Decision-Making) – general health

• JA-CHRODIS (Joint Action on Chronic Conditions) criteria to assess good practice – chronic conditions

• The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Health Ageing – European scaling-up strategy – integrated care

• SCIROCCO (Scaling Integrated Care in Context) Maturity Model – integrated care

• EU Best Practice Tool for Public Health

• Canadian Best Practices Portal for Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention

• WHO NCD Research Agenda – NCDs

• European Physical Activity on Prescription (EUPAP) Feasibility Study – physical inactivity

• JANPA self-assessment tool of good practices – childhood obesity prevention programs in kindergartens and schools

• Development of transferability guidance for integrated care models with special focus on Central and Eastern European countries.

A review of applied MCDA frameworks was also undertaken including assessments of: public health interventions in England (Marsh et al., 2013[44]).; primary care in rural/remote areas in Australia (Reeve, Humphreys and Wakerman, 2015[166]); CVD prevention and control policies in Mediterranean countries (Ghandour et al., 2014[167]); tobacco control measures in the United Kingdom (Reddy et al., 2016[168]); and interventions to include in Thailand’s national benefits package (Youngkong et al., 2012[169]).Finally, chosen criteria were cross-checked against those identified in a systematic literature review for selecting best practices in public health.

Delegate feedback on best practice criteria

Draft criteria for OECD’s Best Practice Identification Framework were presented to delegates to the OECD in October 2019. Results from the vote are summarised in Figure A A.1. The OECD Framework was amended following feedback from delegates, which included outcomes from the vote as well as verbal feedback.

When reviewing results please note:

• “Reach” was re-termed “extent of coverage” in the final OECD Framework

• The criteria “economic sustainability” and “political feasibility” were shifted to the transferability assessment. This was based on delegate feedback who highlighted these criteria were country-specific. For example, if political feasibility were included in best practice framework, performance against this criterion would be of little value to policy makers in implementer context – i.e. knowing the intervention aligned with political priorities within the owner setting is not relevant if these priorities differ from the target setting.

• In line with JA CHRODIS WP 5 (“report on applicability”), the indicators to assess scalability and transferability were considered to be the same, therefore a separate scalability assessment was not developed (JA-CHRODIS, 2017[60]).

Figure A A.1. Importance of criteria for assessing best practice interventions

Source: Delegate feedback from Expert Group on the Economics of Public Health (EGEPH) 2019.