Articles

Use of health economic evaluation in the implementation and improvement science fields—a systematic literature review

Economic evaluation can inform whether strategies designed to improve the quality of health care delivery and the uptake of evidence-based practices represent a cost-effective use of limited resources. We repo...

Authors: Sarah Louise Elin Roberts, Andy Healey and Nick Sevdalis

Proceedings from the 2nd Annual UK Implementation Science Research Conference, 'Advancing the science of scaling up: Improving efficiency and effectiveness of implementation strategies in healthcare': meeting abstracts

Authors:

Guideline-based quality indicators—a systematic comparison of German and international clinical practice guidelines

Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are relevant sources for generating quality indicators (QIs). The objective of this study was to compare guideline-based QIs of German and international CPGs ...

Authors: Monika Becker, Jessica Breuing, Monika Nothacker, Stefanie Deckert, Marie Brombach, Jochen Schmitt, Edmund Neugebauer and Dawid Pieper

To do or not to do—balancing governance and professional autonomy to abandon low-value practices: a study protocol

Many interventions used in health care lack evidence of effectiveness and may be unnecessary or even cause harm, and should therefore be de-implemented. Lists of such ineffective, low-value practices are commo...

Authors: Henna Hasson, Per Nilsen, Hanna Augustsson, Sara Ingvarsson, Sara Korlén and Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz

Disseminating and implementing a lifestyle-based healthy weight program for mothers in a national organization: a study protocol for a cluster randomized trial

Excessive weight gain among young adult women age 18–45 years is an alarming and overlooked trend that must be addressed to reverse the epidemics of obesity and chronic disease. During this vulnerable period, ...

Authors: Rachel G. Tabak, Cynthia D. Schwarz, Allison Kemner, Kenneth B. Schechtman, Karen Steger-May, Veronda Byrth and Debra Haire-Joshu

A repeated cross-sectional study of clinicians’ use of psychotherapy techniques during 5 years of a system-wide effort to implement evidence-based practices in Philadelphia

Little work investigates the effect of behavioral health system efforts to increase use of evidence-based practices or how organizational characteristics moderate the effect of these efforts. The objective of ...

Authors: Rinad S. Beidas, Nathaniel J. Williams, Emily M. Becker-Haimes, Gregory A. Aarons, Frances K. Barg, Arthur C. Evans, Kamilah Jackson, David Jones, Trevor Hadley, Kimberly Hoagwood, Steven C. Marcus, Geoffrey Neimark, Ronnie M. Rubin, Sonja K. Schoenwald, Danielle R. Adams, Lucia M. Walsh…

Training in Implementation Practice Leadership (TRIPLE): evaluation of a novel practice change strategy in behavioral health organizations

Effective leadership for organizational change is critical to the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs). As organizational leaders in behavioral health organizations often are promoted from within ...

Authors: Enola Proctor, Alex T. Ramsey, Matthew T. Brown, Sara Malone, Cole Hooley and Virginia McKay

Scaling Up Safer Birth Bundle Through Quality Improvement in Nepal (SUSTAIN)—a stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial in public hospitals

Each year, 2.2 million intrapartum-related deaths (intrapartum stillbirths and first day neonatal deaths) occur worldwide with 99% of them taking place in low- and middle-income countries. Despite the accelera...

Authors: Rejina Gurung, Anjani Kumar Jha, Susheel Pyakurel, Abhishek Gurung, Helena Litorp, Johan Wrammert, Bijay Kumar Jha, Prajwal Paudel, Syed Moshfiqur Rahman, Honey Malla, Srijana Sharma, Manish Gautam, Jorgen Erland Linde, Md Moinuddin, Uwe Ewald, Mats Målqvist…

Investigating midwives’ barriers and facilitators to multiple health promotion practice behaviours: a qualitative study using the theoretical domains framework

In addition to their more traditional clinical role, midwives are expected to perform various health promotion practice behaviours (HePPBes) such as informing pregnant women about the benefits of physical acti...

Authors: Julie M. McLellan, Ronan E. O’Carroll, Helen Cheyne and Stephan U. Dombrowski

The clinician crowdsourcing challenge: using participatory design to seed implementation strategies

In healthcare settings, system and organization leaders often control the selection and design of implementation strategies even though frontline workers may have the most intimate understanding of the care de...

Authors: Rebecca E. Stewart, Nathaniel Williams, Y. Vivian Byeon, Alison Buttenheim, Sriram Sridharan, Kelly Zentgraf, David T. Jones, Katelin Hoskins, Molly Candon and Rinad S. Beidas

Improving HIV service delivery for people who inject drugs in Kazakhstan: study protocol for the Bridge stepped-wedge trial

People who inject drugs (PWID) in Kazakhstan face many barriers to HIV testing as well as to accessing HIV care, to retention in HIV care, and to initiating and adhering to anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Nee...

Authors: Tara McCrimmon, Louisa Gilbert, Timothy Hunt, Assel Terlikbayeva, Elwin Wu, Meruyert Darisheva, Sholpan Primbetova, Azamat Kuskulov, Alissa Davis, Anindita Dasgupta, Bruce R. Schackman, Lisa R. Metsch, Daniel J. Feaster, Baurzhan Baiserkin and Nabila El-Bassel

What is the impact of large-scale implementation of stroke Early Supported Discharge? A mixed methods realist evaluation study protocol

Stroke Early Supported Discharge (ESD) is a service innovation that facilitates discharge from hospital and delivery of specialist rehabilitation in patients’ homes. There is currently widespread implementatio...

Authors: Rebecca Fisher, Niki Chouliara, Adrian Byrne, Sarah Lewis, Peter Langhorne, Thompson Robinson, Justin Waring, Claudia Geue, Alex Hoffman, Lizz Paley, Anthony Rudd and Marion Walker

Testing an implementation strategy bundle on adoption and sustainability of evidence to optimize physical function in community-dwelling disabled and older adults in a Medicaid waiver: a multi-site pragmatic hybrid type III protocol

In partnership with a state Medicaid home and community-based waiver program, this study tests implementation strategies for adoption and sustainability of an evidence-based intervention to support disabled an...

Authors: Sandra L. Spoelstra, Monica Schueller and Alla Sikorskii

Correction to: Addressing challenges in scaling up TB and HIV treatment integration in rural primary healthcare clinics in South Africa (SUTHI): a cluster randomized controlled trial protocol

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported an error in the wording of the study hypothesis. The error occurs in the Aims and Objectives sub-section of the Methods section and is hi...

Authors: Kogieleum Naidoo, Santhanalakshmi Gengiah, Nonhlanhla Yende-Zuma, Nesri Padayatchi, Pierre Barker, Andrew Nunn, Priashni Subrayen and Salim S. Abdool Karim

The FRAME: an expanded framework for reporting adaptations and modifications to evidence-based interventions

This paper describes the process and results of a refinement of a framework to characterize modifications to interventions. The original version did not fully capture several aspects of modification and adapta...

Authors: Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, Ana A. Baumann and Christopher J. Miller

Evidence-based intervention sustainability strategies: a systematic review

Sustainability of evidence-based interventions (EBI) remains a challenge for public health community-based institutions. The conceptual definition of sustainment is not universally agreed upon by researchers a...

Authors: Maji Hailemariam, Tatiana Bustos, Barrett Montgomery, Rolando Barajas, Luther B. Evans and Amy Drahota

Variation in the operationalisation of dose in implementation of health promotion interventions: insights and recommendations from a scoping review

While ‘dose’ is broadly understood as the ‘amount’ of an intervention, there is considerable variation in how this concept is defined. How we conceptualise, and subsequently measure, the dose of interventions ...

Authors: Samantha Rowbotham, Kathleen Conte and Penelope Hawe

Improving care for elderly patients living with polypharmacy: protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized trial in community-based primary care practices in Canada

Elders living with polypharmacy may be taking medications that do not benefit them. Polypharmacy can be associated with elevated risks of poor health, reduced quality of life, high care costs, and persistently...

Authors: M. Greiver, S. Dahrouge, P. O’Brien, D. Manca, M. T. Lussier, J. Wang, F. Burge, M. Grandy, A. Singer, M. Twohig, R. Moineddin, S. Kalia, B. Aliarzadeh, N. Ivers, S. Garies, J. P. Turner…

The influence of a blended, theoretically-informed pre-implementation strategy on school-based clinician implementation of an evidence-based trauma intervention

Individual-level implementation determinants, such as clinician attitudes, commonly influence the successful adoption of evidence-based practices, but few explicit strategies have been tested with regard to th...

Authors: Aaron R. Lyon, Clayton R. Cook, Mylien T. Duong, Semret Nicodimos, Michael D. Pullmann, Stephanie K. Brewer, Larissa M. Gaias and Shanon Cox

Using a continuum of hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies to put research-tested colorectal screening interventions into practice

Few previous studies have applied the hybrid effectiveness-implementation design framework to illustrate the way in which an intervention was progressively implemented and evaluated across multiple studies in ...

Authors: Beverly B. Green, Gloria D. Coronado, Malaika Schwartz, Jen Coury and Laura-Mae Baldwin

Attributes of context relevant to healthcare professionals’ use of research evidence in clinical practice: a multi-study analysis

To increase the likelihood of successful implementation of evidence-based practices, researchers, knowledge users, and healthcare professionals must consider aspects of context that promote and hinder implemen...

Authors: Janet E. Squires, Laura D. Aloisio, Jeremy M. Grimshaw, Kainat Bashir, Kristin Dorrance, Mary Coughlin, Alison M. Hutchinson, Jill Francis, Susan Michie, Anne Sales, Jamie Brehaut, Janet Curran, Noah Ivers, John Lavis, Thomas Noseworthy, Jocelyn Vine…

Implementation of change in health care in Sweden: a qualitative study of professionals’ change responses

Implementation of evidence-based practices in health care implies change. Understanding health care professionals’ change responses may be critical for facilitating implementation to achieve an evidence-based ...

Authors: Per Nilsen, Kristina Schildmeijer, Carin Ericsson, Ida Seing and Sarah Birken

How do researchers conceptualize and plan for the sustainability of their NIH R01 implementation projects?

Inadequate sustainability of implementation of evidence-based interventions has led to calls for research on how sustainability can be optimized. To advance our understanding of intervention sustainability, we...

Authors: Alekhya Mascarenhas Johnson, Julia E. Moore, David A. Chambers, Jennifer Rup, Camellia Dinyarian and Sharon E. Straus

Physician-reported barriers to using evidence-based recommendations for low back pain in clinical practice: a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative studies using the Theoretical Domains Framework

Adoption of low back pain guidelines is a well-documented problem. Information to guide the development of behaviour change interventions is needed. The review is the first to synthesise the evidence regarding...

Authors: Amanda M. Hall, Samantha R. Scurrey, Andrea E. Pike, Charlotte Albury, Helen L. Richmond, James Matthews, Elaine Toomey, Jill A. Hayden and Holly Etchegary

Implementation facilitation to promote emergency department-initiated buprenorphine for opioid use disorder: protocol for a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation study (Project ED HEALTH)

Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) frequently present to the emergency department (ED) after overdose, or seeking treatment for general medical conditions, their addiction, withdrawal symptoms, or complic...

Authors: Gail D’Onofrio, E. Jennifer Edelman, Kathryn F. Hawk, Michael V. Pantalon, Marek C. Chawarski, Patricia H. Owens, Shara H. Martel, Paul VanVeldhuisen, Neal Oden, Sean M. Murphy, Kristen Huntley, Patrick G. O’Connor and David A. Fiellin

Barriers and facilitators to the successful development, implementation and evaluation of care bundles in acute care in hospital: a scoping review

Care bundles are small sets of evidence-based recommendations, designed to support the implementation of evidence-based best clinical practice. However, there is variation in the design and implementation of c...

Authors: D. Gilhooly, S. A. Green, C. McCann, N. Black and S. R. Moonesinghe

A method to reduce imbalance for site-level randomized stepped wedge implementation trial designs

Controlled implementation trials often randomize the intervention at the site level, enrolling relatively few sites (e.g., 6–20) compared to trials that randomize by subject. Trials with few sites carry a subs...

Authors: Robert A. Lew, Christopher J. Miller, Bo Kim, Hongsheng Wu, Kelly Stolzmann and Mark S. Bauer

A novel counterbalanced implementation study design: methodological description and application to implementation research

Implementation research is increasingly being recognised for optimising the outcomes of clinical practice. Frequently, the benefits of new evidence are not implemented due to the difficulties applying traditio...

Authors: Mitchell N. Sarkies, Elizabeth H. Skinner, Kelly-Ann Bowles, Meg E. Morris, Cylie Williams, Lisa O’Brien, Anne Bardoel, Jenny Martin, Anne E. Holland, Leeanne Carey, Jennifer White and Terry P. Haines

How was research engaged with and used in the development of 131 policy documents? Findings and measurement implications from a mixed methods study

Much has been written about the use of evidence in policy; however, there is still little known about whether and how research is engaged with and used in policy development or the impact of reported barriers ...

Authors: Anna Williamson, Steve R. Makkar and Sally Redman

Using theories of behaviour change to transition multidisciplinary trauma team training from the training environment to clinical practice

Major trauma patients—such as patients who have experienced road injury, high-impact falls or violence—require complex, intense and rapid resuscitation from a multidisciplinary team of clinicians. These ‘flash...

Authors: Margaret Murphy, Andrea McCloughen and Kate Curtis

Choosing implementation strategies to address contextual barriers: diversity in recommendations and future directions

A fundamental challenge of implementation is identifying contextual determinants (i.e., barriers and facilitators) and determining which implementation strategies will address them. Numerous conceptual framewo...

Authors: Thomas J. Waltz, Byron J. Powell, María E. Fernández, Brenton Abadie and Laura J. Damschroder

Scaling-up the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Mozambique (SAIA-SCALE): a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial

The introduction of option B+—rapid initiation of lifelong antiretroviral therapy regardless of disease status for HIV-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women—can dramatically reduce HIV transmission during ...

Authors: Kenneth Sherr, Kristjana Ásbjörnsdóttir, Jonny Crocker, Joana Coutinho, Maria de Fatima Cuembelo, Esperança Tavede, Nélia Manaca, Keshet Ronen, Felipe Murgorgo, Ruanne Barnabas, Grace John-Stewart, Sarah Holte, Bryan J. Weiner, James Pfeiffer and Sarah Gimbel

Clinical Performance Feedback Intervention Theory (CP-FIT): a new theory for designing, implementing, and evaluating feedback in health care based on a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research

Providing health professionals with quantitative summaries of their clinical performance when treating specific groups of patients (“feedback”) is a widely used quality improvement strategy, yet systematic rev...

Authors: Benjamin Brown, Wouter T. Gude, Thomas Blakeman, Sabine N. van der Veer, Noah Ivers, Jill J. Francis, Fabiana Lorencatto, Justin Presseau, Niels Peek and Gavin Daker-White

Clinical performance comparators in audit and feedback: a review of theory and evidence

Audit and feedback (A&F) is a common quality improvement strategy with highly variable effects on patient care. It is unclear how A&F effectiveness can be maximised. Since the core mechanism of action of A&F d...

Authors: Wouter T. Gude, Benjamin Brown, Sabine N. van der Veer, Heather L. Colquhoun, Noah M. Ivers, Jamie C. Brehaut, Zach Landis-Lewis, Christopher J. Armitage, Nicolette F. de Keizer and Niels Peek

Exploring the effect of implementation and context on a stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial of a vital sign triage device in routine maternity care in low-resource settings

Interventions aimed at reducing maternal mortality are increasingly complex. Understanding how complex interventions are delivered, to whom, and how they work is key in ensuring their rapid scale-up. We delive...

Authors: Nicola Vousden, Elodie Lawley, Paul T. Seed, Muchabayiwa Francis Gidiri, Umesh Charantimath, Grace Makonyola, Adrian Brown, Lomi Yadeta, Rebecca Best, Sebastian Chinkoyo, Bellington Vwalika, Annettee Nakimuli, James Ditai, Grace Greene, Lucy C. Chappell, Jane Sandall…

Costs of implementing and sustaining enhanced collaborative care programs involving community partners

Collaborative care is an evidence-based program for treating depression in primary care. We sought to expand this model by recruiting clinics interested in incorporating community partners (i.e., community-bas...

Authors: Theresa J. Hoeft, Heather Wilcox, Ladson Hinton and Jürgen Unützer

Longitudinal assessment of the association between implementation strategy use and the uptake of hepatitis C treatment: Year 2

To increase the uptake of evidence-based treatments for hepatitis C (HCV), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) established the Hepatitis Innovation Team (HIT) Collaborative. Teams of providers were tasked ...

Authors: Shari S. Rogal, Vera Yakovchenko, Thomas J. Waltz, Byron J. Powell, Rachel Gonzalez, Angela Park, Maggie Chartier, David Ross, Timothy R. Morgan, JoAnn E. Kirchner, Enola K. Proctor and Matthew J. Chinman

Do the key functions of an intervention designed from the same specifications vary according to context? Investigating the transferability of a public health intervention in France

The processes at play in the implementation of one program in different contexts are complex and not yet well understood. In order to facilitate both the analysis and transfer of interventions, a “key function...

Authors: Mélanie Villeval, Emilie Gaborit, Florent Berault, Thierry Lang and Michelle Kelly-Irving

How the study of networks informs knowledge translation and implementation: a scoping review

To date, implementation science has focused largely on identifying the individual and organizational barriers, processes, and outcomes of knowledge translation (KT) (including implementation efforts). Social n...

Authors: Stephanie M. N. Glegg, Emily Jenkins and Anita Kothari

Using implementation facilitation to implement primary care mental health integration via clinical video telehealth in rural clinics: protocol for a hybrid type 2 cluster randomized stepped-wedge design

Integrating mental health providers into primary care clinics improves access to and outcomes of mental health care. In the Veterans Health Administration (VA) Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI) pr...

Authors: Richard R. Owen, Eva N. Woodward, Karen L. Drummond, Tisha L. Deen, Karen Anderson Oliver, Nancy J. Petersen, Scott S. Meit, John C. Fortney and JoAnn E. Kirchner

Specifying and comparing implementation strategies across seven large implementation interventions: a practical application of theory

The use of implementation strategies is an active and purposive approach to translate research findings into routine clinical care. The Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) identified and defi...

Authors: Cynthia K. Perry, Laura J. Damschroder, Jennifer R. Hemler, Tanisha T. Woodson, Sarah S. Ono and Deborah J. Cohen

Bridging the knowledge-practice gap in tuberculosis contact management in a high-burden setting: a mixed-methods protocol for a multicenter health system strengthening study

People in close contact with tuberculosis should have screening and appropriate management, as an opportunity for active case detection and prevention. However, implementation of tuberculosis contact screening...

Authors: Trisasi Lestari, Steve Graham, Christel van den Boogard, Rina Triasih, Jeanne Rini Poespoprodjo, Reynold Rizal Ubra, Enny Kenangalem, Yodi Mahendradhata, Nicholas M. Anstey, Ross S. Bailie and Anna P. Ralph

A stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial designed to improve completion of HPV vaccine series and reduce missed opportunities to vaccinate in rural primary care practices

To test the effectiveness of a comprehensive team-based intervention to improve human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination completion rates and reduce missed opportunities to vaccinate in rural Oregon.

Authors: Patricia A. Carney, Brigit Hatch, Isabel Stock, Caitlin Dickinson, Melinda Davis, Rex Larsen, Steele Valenzuela, Miguel Marino, Paul M. Darden, Rose Gunn, Laura Ferrara and Lyle J. Fagnan

Individual and organizational factors that affect implementation of evidence-based practices for children with autism in public schools: a cross-sectional observational study

Children with autism receive most of their intervention services in public schools, but implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for autism varies. Studies suggest that individual (attitudes) and orga...

Authors: Jill Locke, Gwendolyn M. Lawson, Rinad S. Beidas, Gregory A. Aarons, Ming Xie, Aaron R. Lyon, Aubyn Stahmer, Max Seidman, Lindsay Frederick, Cristine Oh, Christine Spaulding, Shannon Dorsey and David S. Mandell

Testing the leadership and organizational change for implementation (LOCI) intervention in Norwegian mental health clinics: a stepped-wedge cluster randomized design study protocol

Alignment across levels of leadership within an organization is needed for successful implementation of evidence-based practice. The leadership and organizational change for implementation (LOCI) intervention ...

Authors: Karina M. Egeland, Ane-Marthe Solheim Skar, Mathilde Endsjø, Erlend Høen Laukvik, Harald Bækkelund, Aida Babaii, Lene Beate Granly, Gry Kristina Husebø, Randi Hovden Borge, Mark G. Ehrhart, Marisa Sklar, C. Hendricks Brown and Gregory A. Aarons

The health equity implementation framework: proposal and preliminary study of hepatitis C virus treatment

Researchers could benefit from methodological advancements to advance uptake of new treatments while also reducing healthcare disparities. A comprehensive determinants framework for healthcare disparity implem...

Authors: Eva N. Woodward, Monica M. Matthieu, Uchenna S. Uchendu, Shari Rogal and JoAnn E. Kirchner

Measurement Training and Feedback System for Implementation of family-based services for adolescent substance use: protocol for a cluster randomized trial of two implementation strategies

This article describes a study protocol for testing the Measurement Training and Feedback System for Implementation (MTFS-I) and comparing two implementation strategies for MTFS-I delivery. MTFS-I is a web-bas...

Authors: Aaron Hogue, Sarah Dauber, Molly Bobek, Amanda Jensen-Doss and Craig E. Henderson

Stroke Ready: a multi-level program that combines implementation science and community-based participatory research approaches to increase acute stroke treatment: protocol for a stepped wedge trial

Post-stroke disability is common, costly, and projected to increase. Acute stroke treatments can substantially reduce post-stroke disability, but few patients take advantage of these cost-effective treatments....

Authors: Lesli E. Skolarus, Anne E. Sales, Marc A. Zimmerman, Casey L. Corches, Zach Landis-Lewis, Maria Cielito Robles, A. Camille McBride, Narmeen Rehman, Alina Oliver, Nishat Islam, Mellanie V. Springer, Alison O’Brien, Sarah Bailey, Lewis B. Morgenstern, William J. Meurer and James F. Burke

Understanding contexts: how explanatory theories can help

To rethink the nature and roles of context in ways that help improvers implement effective, sustained improvement interventions in healthcare quality and safety.

Authors: Frank Davidoff

Impact of team configuration and team stability on primary care quality

The science of effective teams is well documented; far less is known, however, about how specific team configurations may impact primary care team effectiveness. Further, teams experiencing frequent personnel ...

Authors: Sylvia J. Hysong, Amber B. Amspoker, Ashley M. Hughes, Lechauncy Woodard, Frederick L. Oswald, Laura A. Petersen and Houston F. Lester