Disease prevention and management (DPM) represents a relatively recent paradigm shift in the provision of healthcare, from a focus on individual components of healthcare, to a more holistic view of patient care.The purpose of this article is to provide practical guidelines that can be used in designing, implementing and evaluating DPM programmes. There are 6 steps in the design phase: (i) conducting an epidemiological diagnosis; (ii) reviewing the scientific literature; (iii) identifying the goal and outcome objectives; (iv) specifying strategy objectives and strategy activities; (v) selecting a study design; and (vi) considering the characteristics of effective outcomes measures. The implementation and evaluation phases include collecting the data, examining the data and reporting the results. Concepts and principles presented here are based on key methodological features of population research.