Welcome to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) EIDM (Evidence-informed decision-making) Toolkit. This toolkit has been designed to support the regional WRHA New Initiatives process, Resource Allocation and other decision-making processes.
Finding appropriate evidence can be challenging. This toolkit is intended to provide a single point of access to good sources of evidence (could be linked to ‘the table’) to help support New Initiative and Resource Allocation submissions, and other planning activities, with current local, national and international evidence. Evidence is broader than scientific research studies, and can include well-designed evaluations, quality improvement initiatives, and others (see What is Evidence?).
This toolkit will allow you to:
Identify credible sources of evidence
Access databases to search for journal articles and relevant reports
Directly access journals
Narrow your search for internet resources with our Google Co-op feature
Access local, national and international data
Access WRHA concept papers, directional documents and evaluation reports
Get assistance from a librarian to locate good evidence
Resources with require a current UM Library card to access. Further details are available on obtaining a card. To learn more about effectively searching and using evidence-based resources refer to the Events section on the right-hand side for current course offerings from the UM Health Sciences Libraries.
Google Co-op Search|
This specially created Google
Search extracts information from selected web-based resources that are freely
available and considered to be reliable sources of scientific evidence and
information relevant to the Canadian healthcare system.
All of the following resources will search acrose multiple journal articles, reports, and documents. Contact your nearest UM Health Sciences Library for tips on good search strategies or ask a librarian to conduct a Literature Search for you.
Canadian Health Research Collection A collection of publications from major Canadian research institutes, government agencies and university centres working in the area of health and medical research. Full-text of all documents is available.
Cochrane Library The Cochrane Library will give you systematic reviews, economic evaluations, and health technology assessments because the database contains four important databases:
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
The York Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness
Health Technology Assessment Database (produced by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at University of York in the U.K.)
NHS Economic Evaluation Database
Health-Evidence.ca This database attempts to Identify, appraise, and make available methodologically-sound reviews of health promotion and public health interventions published from 1985 to the present. The main feature of this web site is a free, searchable online registry of systematic reviews on the effectiveness of public health and health promotion interventions.
Knowledge Translatation+ The best evidence relevant to knowledge translation in the areas of quality improvement, continuing medical education, computerized clinical decision support, health services research and patient adherence, identified from over 130 premier clinical journals. All citations are pre-rated for quality by research staff at McMaster University. You must register to use the database
PubMed A key database in the health sciences produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences.
PubMed Systematic Reviews A special search filter in Pubmed that retrieves systematic reviews from published journal literature.
Scopus A multi-disciplinary abstract and citation database covering the health, life, physical and social sciences. Incorporates references from Pubmed, EMBASE and more. Track cited references from 1996 to search for subsequently published papers that cite an original article. Includes the SCIRUS search engine for searching science-related Web pages and institutional repositories.
TRIP database TRIP Database (Translating Research into Practice) is a meta-search engine widely used in the United Kingdom and internationally, allowing users to rapidly identify the highest quality evidence from a wide range of sources. TRIP searches sites of evidence-based medical information and gives direct, hyperlinked access to a large collection of material on the web as well as articles from premier online journals.
WRHA Reports and Papers|
The following reports and publications have been written by Research and Evaluation team members for internal distribution within the WRHA.
The following journals may be of particular value to those in healthcare policy and administration. These journals can be accessed electronically through the UM Health Sciences Libraries. An Electronic Table of Contents (eTOC) Service is available from the Library. You can receive an eTOC by email for journals of interest.
Effective Health Care Evidence Based Healthcare Health Affairs Health Economics Health Forum Health Policy Health Policy and Planning Health Progress Healthcare Informatics Healthcare Quarterly Healthcare Review Online - Experience in Practice HealthcarePapers Hospitals and Health Networks HSR: Health Services Research L'infirmière canadienne International Journal for Quality in Health Care International Journal of Health Planning and Management Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety Journal of Health Economics Journal of Health Services Research and Policy Journal of Public Health Policy Milbank Quarterly New Zealand Evidence-Based Healthcare Bulletin Quality in Health Care
Health Statistics|
The following resources are some of the key sources and services available to those working in healthcare in Manitoba
Injuries in Manitoba: A 10-Year Review. Manitoba, 2004. [PDF] - This report outlines the injury trends in Manitoba over a ten-year period from 1992-2001 and include data on both unintentional and intentional injury.
Childstats.gov - Provides statistical reports on the status of U.S. children and their families. Coverage includes population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education.
FedStats (US) - Gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies.
Global Trends - In the categories of Population, Health, Food and Agriculture, Women, Children, Economic Development, Climate and Environment, and Social Indicators you can find current statistics as well as projections as much as fifty years ahead. (UN)
HCUP (Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project) - HCUPnet generates statistics using the 1997 data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) and from the State Inpatient Databases (SID) for those states that have agreed to participate.
WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) - Health and health-related statistical information from the WHO Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy
FluNet: Global Influenza Surveillance Network (World Health Organization) - News, reports, and maps for the current international flu situation, plus country reports for past years. There are also links to national and international flu Web sites.
FluWatch (Public Health Agency of Canada) - Excellent source of epidemiological data with weekly updates on virus type, location and number of cases. Includes maps showing activity over time. Also contains consumer health information on signs and symptoms of the flu.
National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) - Database of public schools, private schools, colleges, universities, and public libraries in the United States and its territories. Searchable by name of institution, city, or zip code.
Welcome to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) EIDM (Evidence-informed decision-making) Toolkit. This toolkit has been designed to support the regional WRHA New Initiatives process, Resource Allocation and other decision-making processes. 
require a current UM Library card to access. 
-Manitoba Centre for Health Policy Evaluation 
