Enhancing preventive practice.

Health professionals can play a major role in prevention. They are perceived as a reliable and credible source of health information and they have contact with a large percentage of the population every year. In Canada, a key development for the integration of prevention in clinical practice was the establishment of the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination. The Task Force has provided guidance on effective preventive interventions in the clinical setting over the past 15 years. The challenge lies in the implementation of these guidelines. We need to find innovative ways to disseminate and promote them. In this context, the creation of a National Partnership for Quality in Health is an important avenue for the coordination of practice guideline development and implementation in this country. An emerging concern in the delivery of preventive services is the coordination of activities of health professionals within the public health sector, with those of clinical care. In Canada, such a comprehensive and coordinated approach has been put into practice through the Canadian Heart Health Initiative.