Using evidence is crucial for quality improvement projects. Before starting any project, it is important to assess whether similar problems have been addressed elsewhere and what developments have already been made.

Undertaking a literature search, looking at systematic reviews of evidence, topic scoping or accessing web sites for examples of other people’s work can show you what’s possible and give you ideas of how to get started.

Horizon scanning and reviews can provide valuable insights and inform project development, while also allowing you to explore potential factors and interventions that may have an impact. Benchmarking is a term to describe the process of understanding how your team or system compares to others. It can help you understand where you are doing well, and if there are opportunities to improve, who you can contact to find out how they did it!

Visit our Evidence Toolkit which is your complete guide to finding, appraising, and applying evidence. Explore more evidence and evaluation resources.