Development and use of best practice portals: a European perspective

Abstract Across Europe, a number of best practice portals are in different stages of planning, implementation, and evaluation. At the European level, joint best practice initiatives are also underway, notably the Best Practice Portal of the Steering Group on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention managed by the European Commission’s Directorate General of Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), as well as topic-specific portals such as the Xchange portal managed by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and best practice databases from European projects (such as INHERIT on health and sustainability) or Joint Actions (CHRODIS). This presentation will look at how joint European initiatives such as these can successfully link with initiatives at the national level, as well as how they can support the achievement of international objectives such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This presentation will also provide an overview of learnings and key takeaways from the Developing Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Best Practice Portals workshop, hosted by BZgA and EuroHealthNet in Cologne, Germany in June 2019. We will present further collaboration and learning conducted by participants subsequent to the June workshop. Finally, the presentation will kick off the debate following the presentations on the value added of best practice portals and how to promote awareness, engagement, and uptake by professionals and policymakers - both of specific best practices and the portals themselves. This exercise will draw on examples from countries across Europe, as well as from European projects such as CHRODIS+, and look at ways to evaluate the success of portals, as well as practical concerns such as transferability, ownership and scalability.