Healthy promotion: changing behaviour towards evidence-based health care.

All organisations have to change to meet challenges or take forward new opportunities. Health organisations are no different; all over the world they face pressures to buy and to provide care that is based on evidence of its effectiveness. This is not a new concept: it is what staff within those organisations have always considered themselves to be doing. What is new is the emphasis that is put upon the move towards a truly evaluative culture, one which asks systematically and regularly: * Is there evidence to back up the effectiveness of this procedure or show another to be superior? * Where can I find out about it? * How can I let my team know about it? * Are we applying it? * Are our outcomes as good as can be expected? All this necessitates an increase in certain behaviours involving the seeking for information about good evidence; communicating it within the organisations; applying it wherever appropriate; and monitoring its applications and outcomes. This paper explores the issues to be considered by those encouraging the development of this evaluative culture, looking for leads from research in other areas of work involving behaviour change: organisational and health psychology, health promotion, and marketing.