Articles

Competing for space in an already crowded market: a mixed methods study of why an online community of practice (CoP) for alcohol harm reduction failed to generate interest amongst the group of public health professionals at which it was aimed

Improving mechanisms for knowledge translation (KT) and connecting decision-makers to each other and the information and evidence they consider relevant to their work remains a priority for public health. Virt...

Authors: Ruth Ponsford, Jennifer Ford, Helena Korjonen, Emma Hughes, Asha Keswani, Triantafyllos Pliakas and Matt Egan

A mixed methods protocol for developing and testing implementation strategies for evidence-based obesity prevention in childcare: a cluster randomized hybrid type III trial

Despite the potential to reach at-risk children in childcare, there is a significant gap between current practices and evidence-based obesity prevention in this setting. There are few investigations of the imp...

Authors: Taren Swindle, Susan L. Johnson, Leanne Whiteside-Mansell and Geoffrey M. Curran

Effects of the EQUIP quasi-experimental study testing a collaborative quality improvement approach for maternal and newborn health care in Tanzania and Uganda

Quality improvement is a recommended strategy to improve implementation levels for evidence-based essential interventions, but experience of and evidence for its effects in low-resource settings are limited. W...

Authors: P Waiswa, F Manzi, G Mbaruku, A. K. Rowe, M Marx, G Tomson, T Marchant, B. A. Willey, J Schellenberg, S Peterson and C Hanson

Development of a theory-informed implementation intervention to improve the triage, treatment and transfer of stroke patients in emergency departments using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF): the T³ Trial

Theoretical frameworks and models based on behaviour change theories are increasingly used in the development of implementation interventions. Development of an implementation intervention is often based on th...

Authors: Louise E. Craig, Natalie Taylor, Rohan Grimley, Dominique A. Cadilhac, Elizabeth McInnes, Rosemary Phillips, Simeon Dale, Denise O’Connor, Chris Levi, Mark Fitzgerald, Julie Considine, Jeremy M. Grimshaw, Richard Gerraty, N. Wah Cheung, Jeanette Ward and Sandy Middleton

Testing feedback message framing and comparators to address prescribing of high-risk medications in nursing homes: protocol for a pragmatic, factorial, cluster-randomized trial

Audit and feedback (AF) interventions that leverage routine administrative data offer a scalable and relatively low-cost method to improve processes of care. AF interventions are usually designed to highlight ...

Authors: Noah M. Ivers, Laura Desveaux, Justin Presseau, Catherine Reis, Holly O. Witteman, Monica K. Taljaard, Nicola McCleary, Kednapa Thavorn and Jeremy M. Grimshaw

Barriers and facilitators to reducing frequent laboratory testing for patients who are stable on warfarin: a mixed methods study of de-implementation in five anticoagulation clinics

Patients on chronic warfarin therapy require regular laboratory monitoring to safely manage warfarin. Recent studies have challenged the need for routine monthly blood draws in the most stable warfarin-treated...

Authors: Geoffrey D. Barnes, Sevan Misirliyan, Scott Kaatz, Elizabeth A. Jackson, Brian Haymart, Eva Kline-Rogers, Jay Kozlowski, Gregory Krol, James B. Froehlich and Anne Sales

Prioritising Responses Of Nurses To deteriorating patient Observations (PRONTO) protocol: testing the effectiveness of a facilitation intervention in a pragmatic, cluster-randomised trial with an embedded process evaluation and cost analysis

Vital signs are the primary indicator of physiological status and for determining the need for urgent clinical treatment. Yet, if physiological signs of deterioration are missed, misinterpreted or mismanaged, ...

Authors: Tracey K. Bucknall, Gill Harvey, Julie Considine, Imogen Mitchell, Jo Rycroft-Malone, Ian D. Graham, Mohammadreza Mohebbi, Jennifer Watts and Alison M. Hutchinson

The evaluation of enhanced feedback interventions to reduce unnecessary blood transfusions (AFFINITIE): protocol for two linked cluster randomised factorial controlled trials

Blood for transfusion is a frequently used clinical intervention, and is also a costly and limited resource with risks. Many transfusions are given to stable and non-bleeding patients despite no clear evidence...

Authors: Suzanne Hartley, Robbie Foy, Rebecca E. A. Walwyn, Robert Cicero, Amanda J. Farrin, Jill J. Francis, Fabiana Lorencatto, Natalie J. Gould, John Grant-Casey, Jeremy M. Grimshaw, Liz Glidewell, Susan Michie, Stephen Morris and Simon J. Stanworth

Evaluation of a knowledge transfer scheme to improve policy making and practices in health promotion and disease prevention setting in French regions: a realist study protocol

Evidence-based decision-making and practice are pivotal in public health. However, barriers do persist and they relate to evidence properties, organisations and contexts. To address these major knowledge trans...

Authors: Linda Cambon, Audrey Petit, Valery Ridde, Christian Dagenais, Marion Porcherie, Jeanine Pommier, Chrisine Ferron, Laetitia Minary and François Alla

Searching for management approaches to reduce HAI transmission (SMART): a study protocol

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) impact patients’ lives through prolonged hospitalization, morbidity, and death, resulting in significant costs to both health systems and society. Central line-associate...

Authors: Ann Scheck McAlearney, Jennifer L. Hefner, Cynthia J. Sieck, Daniel M. Walker, Alison M. Aldrich, Lindsey N. Sova, Alice A. Gaughan, Caitlin M. Slevin, Courtney Hebert, Erinn Hade, Jacalyn Buck, Michele Grove and Timothy R. Huerta

An audience research study to disseminate evidence about comprehensive state mental health parity legislation to US State policymakers: protocol

A large proportion of the US population has limited access to mental health treatments because insurance providers limit the utilization of mental health services in ways that are more restrictive than for phy...

Authors: Jonathan Purtle, Félice Lê-Scherban, Paul Shattuck, Enola K. Proctor and Ross C. Brownson

Rapid sociometric mapping of community health workers to identify opinion leaders using an SMS platform: a short report

Using opinion leaders to accelerate the dissemination of evidence-based public health practices is a promising strategy for closing the gap between evidence and practice. Network interventions (using social ne...

Authors: Thomas A. Odeny, Maya Petersen, Charles T. Muga, Jayne Lewis-Kulzer, Elizabeth A. Bukusi and Elvin H. Geng

Implementation science for ambulatory care safety: a novel method to develop context-sensitive interventions to reduce quality gaps in monitoring high-risk patients

Missed evidence-based monitoring in high-risk conditions (e.g., cancer) leads to delayed diagnosis. Current technological solutions fail to close this safety gap. In response, we aim to demonstrate a novel met...

Authors: Kathryn M. McDonald, George Su, Sarah Lisker, Emily S. Patterson and Urmimala Sarkar

Architectural frameworks: defining the structures for implementing learning health systems

The vision of transforming health systems into learning health systems (LHSs) that rapidly and continuously transform knowledge into improved health outcomes at lower cost is generating increased interest in gove...

Authors: Lysanne Lessard, Wojtek Michalowski, Michael Fung-Kee-Fung, Lori Jones and Agnes Grudniewicz

Pediatric eMental healthcare technologies: a systematic review of implementation foci in research studies, and government and organizational documents

Researchers, healthcare planners, and policymakers convey a sense of urgency in using eMental healthcare technologies to improve pediatric mental healthcare availability and access. Yet, different stakeholders...

Authors: Nicole D. Gehring, Patrick McGrath, Lori Wozney, Amir Soleimani, Kathryn Bennett, Lisa Hartling, Anna Huguet, Michele P. Dyson and Amanda S. Newton

A guide to using the Theoretical Domains Framework of behaviour change to investigate implementation problems

Implementing new practices requires changes in the behaviour of relevant actors, and this is facilitated by understanding of the determinants of current and desired behaviours. The Theoretical Domains Framewor...

Authors: Lou Atkins, Jill Francis, Rafat Islam, Denise O’Connor, Andrea Patey, Noah Ivers, Robbie Foy, Eilidh M. Duncan, Heather Colquhoun, Jeremy M. Grimshaw, Rebecca Lawton and Susan Michie

Predicting evidence-based treatment sustainment: results from a longitudinal study of the Adolescent-Community Reinforcement Approach

Implementation support models are increasingly being used to enhance the delivery of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) in routine care settings. Little is known about the extent to which these models lead to co...

Authors: Sarah B. Hunter, Bing Han, Mary E. Slaughter, Susan H. Godley and Bryan R. Garner

Health professionals’ views on the barriers and enablers to evidence-based practice for acute stroke care: a systematic review

Adoption of contemporary evidence-based guidelines for acute stroke management is often delayed due to a range of key enablers and barriers. Recent reviews on such barriers focus mainly on specific acute strok...

Authors: Leonard Baatiema, Michael E. Otim, George Mnatzaganian, Ama de-Graft Aikins, Judith Coombes and Shawn Somerset

The creation and validation of the Measure of Effective Attributes of Trainers (MEAT)

Training is a core component in the implementation of empirically supported treatments, especially in the case of psychosocial interventions targeting mental illness. However, common forms of training are rela...

Authors: Meredith R. Boyd, Cara C. Lewis, Kelli Scott, Anne Krendl and Aaron R. Lyon

The effectiveness of a de-implementation strategy to reduce low-value blood management techniques in primary hip and knee arthroplasty: a pragmatic cluster-randomized controlled trial

Perioperative autologous blood salvage and preoperative erythropoietin are not (cost) effective to reduce allogeneic transfusion in primary hip and knee arthroplasty, but are still used. This study aimed to ev...

Authors: Veronique M. A. Voorn, Perla J. Marang-van de Mheen, Anja van der Hout, Stefanie N. Hofstede, Cynthia So-Osman, M. Elske van den Akker-van Marle, Ad A. Kaptein, Theo Stijnen, Ankie W. M. M. Koopman-van Gemert, Albert Dahan, Thea P. M. M. Vliet Vlieland, Rob G. H. H. Nelissen and Leti van Bodegom-Vos

Improving the appropriateness of antipsychotic prescribing in nursing homes: a mixed-methods process evaluation of an academic detailing intervention

In 2014, nursing home administration and government officials were facing increasing public and media scrutiny around the variation of antipsychotic medication (APM) prescribing across Ontario nursing homes. I...

Authors: L. Desveaux, M. Saragosa, J. Rogers, L. Bevan, H. Loshak, A. Moser, S. Feldman, L. Regier, L. Jeffs and N. M. Ivers

Providing online weight management in Primary Care: a mixed methods process evaluation of healthcare practitioners’ experiences of using and supporting patients using POWeR+

An online weight management intervention (POWeR+) combined with a small amount of primary care healthcare practitioner support is effective in helping patients to lose weight, but little is known about how pra...

Authors: Emily Smith, Katherine Bradbury, Lisa Scott, Mary Steele, Paul Little and Lucy Yardley

Electronic audit and feedback intervention with action implementation toolbox to improve pain management in intensive care: protocol for a laboratory experiment and cluster randomised trial

Audit and feedback is often used as a strategy to improve quality of care, however, its effects are variable and often marginal. In order to learn how to design and deliver effective feedback, we need to under...

Authors: Wouter T. Gude, Marie-José Roos-Blom, Sabine N. van der Veer, Evert de Jonge, Niels Peek, Dave A. Dongelmans and Nicolette F. de Keizer

Non-participants in policy efforts to promote evidence-based practices in a large behavioral health system

System-wide training initiatives to support and implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) in behavioral health systems have become increasingly widespread. Understanding more about organizations who do not par...

Authors: Rebecca E. Stewart, Danielle R. Adams, David S. Mandell, Gayatri Nangia, Lauren Shaffer, Arthur C. Evans, Ronnie Rubin, Shawna Weaver, Trevor R. Hadley and Rinad S. Beidas

Implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery: a strategy to transform surgical care across a health system

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs have been shown to have a positive impact on outcome. The ERAS care system includes an evidence-based guideline, an implementation program, and an interactive au...

Authors: Leah M. Gramlich, Caroline E. Sheppard, Tracy Wasylak, Loreen E. Gilmour, Olle Ljungqvist, Carlota Basualdo-Hammond and Gregg Nelson

Data for Improvement and Clinical Excellence: a report of an interrupted time series trial of feedback in home care

There is substantial evidence about the effectiveness of audit with feedback, but none that we know have been conducted in home care settings. The primary purpose of the Data for Improvement and Clinical Excel...

Authors: Kimberly D. Fraser, Anne E. Sales, Melba Andrea B. Baylon, Corinne Schalm and John J. Miklavcic

Combining alcohol interventions with tobacco addictions treatment in primary care—the COMBAT study: a pragmatic cluster randomized trial

Tobacco and alcohol use present multiplicative risk for aerodigestive cancers. Reducing alcohol consumption improves smoking cessation outcomes and reduces cancer risk. Risky alcohol consumption and smoking ar...

Authors: Nadia Minian, Dolly Baliunas, Laurie Zawertailo, Aliya Noormohamed, Norman Giesbrecht, Christian S. Hendershot, Bernard Le Foll, Jürgen Rehm, Andriy Samokhvalov and Peter L. Selby

Reversing the pipeline? Implementing public health evidence-based guidance in english local government

In the UK, responsibility for many public health functions was transferred in 2013 from the National Health Service (NHS) to local government; a very different political context and one without the NHS history...

Authors: Lou Atkins, Michael P. Kelly, Clare Littleford, Gillian Leng and Susan Michie

Organizational theory for dissemination and implementation research

Even under optimal internal organizational conditions, implementation can be undermined by changes in organizations’ external environments, such as fluctuations in funding, adjustments in contracting practices...

Authors: Sarah A. Birken, Alicia C. Bunger, Byron J. Powell, Kea Turner, Alecia S. Clary, Stacey L. Klaman, Yan Yu, Daniel J. Whitaker, Shannon R. Self, Whitney L. Rostad, Jenelle R. Shanley Chatham, M. Alexis Kirk, Christopher M. Shea, Emily Haines and Bryan J. Weiner

Are general and strategic measures of organizational context and leadership associated with knowledge and attitudes toward evidence-based practices in public behavioral health settings? A cross-sectional observational study

Examining the role of modifiable barriers and facilitators is a necessary step toward developing effective implementation strategies. This study examines whether both general (organizational culture, organizat...

Authors: Byron J. Powell, David S. Mandell, Trevor R. Hadley, Ronnie M. Rubin, Arthur C. Evans, Matthew O. Hurford and Rinad S. Beidas

A systematic review of electronic audit and feedback: intervention effectiveness and use of behaviour change theory

Audit and feedback is a common intervention for supporting clinical behaviour change. Increasingly, health data are available in electronic format. Yet, little is known regarding if and how electronic audit an...

Authors: Timothy Tuti, Jacinta Nzinga, Martin Njoroge, Benjamin Brown, Niels Peek, Mike English, Chris Paton and Sabine N van der Veer

The association between implementation strategy use and the uptake of hepatitis C treatment in a national sample

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a common and highly morbid illness. New medications that have much higher cure rates have become the new evidence-based practice in the field. Understanding the implementation of the...

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

Erratum to: Does a quality improvement campaign accelerate take-up of new evidence? A ten-state cluster-randomized controlled trial of the IHI’s Project JOINTS

Authors: Eric C. Schneider, Melony E. Sorbero, Ann Haas, M. Susan Ridgely, Dmitry Khodyakov, Claude M. Setodji, Gareth Parry, Susan S. Huang, Deborah S. Yokoe and Don Goldmann

A methodological protocol for selecting and quantifying low-value prescribing practices in routinely collected data: an Australian case study

Growing imperatives for safety, quality and responsible resource allocation have prompted renewed efforts to identify and quantify harmful or wasteful (low-value) medical practices such as test ordering, proce...

Authors: Jonathan Brett, Adam G. Elshaug, R. Sacha Bhatia, Kelsey Chalmers, Tim Badgery-Parker and Sallie-Anne Pearson

Provision of peer specialist services in VA patient aligned care teams: protocol for testing a cluster randomized implementation trial

Over 1100 Veterans work in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as peer specialists (PSs). PSs are Veterans with formal training who provide support to other Veterans with similar diagnoses, primarily in m...

Authors: Matthew Chinman, Karin Daniels, Jeff Smith, Sharon McCarthy, Deborah Medoff, Amanda Peeples and Richard Goldberg

The role of informal dimensions of safety in high-volume organisational routines: an ethnographic study of test results handling in UK general practice

The handling of laboratory, imaging and other test results in UK general practice is a high-volume organisational routine that is both complex and high risk. Previous research in this area has focused on error...

Authors: Suzanne Grant, Katherine Checkland, Paul Bowie and Bruce Guthrie

Effectiveness of an intervention for improving drug prescription in primary care patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy: study protocol of a cluster randomized clinical trial (Multi-PAP project)

Multimorbidity is associated with negative effects both on people’s health and on healthcare systems. A key problem linked to multimorbidity is polypharmacy, which in turn is associated with increased risk of ...

Authors: Alexandra Prados-Torres, Isabel del Cura-González, Daniel Prados-Torres, Juan A. López-Rodríguez, Francisca Leiva-Fernández, Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga, Fernando López-Verde, Luis A. Gimeno-Feliu, Esperanza Escortell-Mayor, Victoria Pico-Soler, Teresa Sanz-Cuesta, Mª Josefa Bujalance-Zafra, Mariel Morey-Montalvo, José Ramón Boxó-Cifuentes, Beatriz Poblador-Plou, José Manuel Fernández-Arquero…

Teaching implementation science in a new Master of Science Program in Germany: a survey of stakeholder expectations

Implementation science in healthcare is an evolving discipline in German-speaking countries. In 2015, the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, implemented a two-year full-time Master of Sc...

Authors: Charlotte Ullrich, Cornelia Mahler, Johanna Forstner, Joachim Szecsenyi and Michel Wensing

The use of evidence in English local public health decision-making: a systematic scoping review

Public health decision-making structures in England have transformed since the implementation of reforms in 2013, with responsibility for public health services and planning having shifted from the “health” bo...

Authors: Dylan Kneale, Antonio Rojas-García, Rosalind Raine and James Thomas

Proceedings from the 9^th annual conference on the science of dissemination and implementation

Authors: David Chambers, Lisa Simpson, Gila Neta, Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz, Antoinette Percy-Laurry, Gregory A. Aarons, Gila Neta, Ross Brownson, Amanda Vogel, Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, Kenneth Sherr, Rachel Sturke, Wynne E. Norton, Allyson Varley, David Chambers, Cynthia Vinson…

Using media to impact health policy-making: an integrative systematic review

Media interventions can potentially play a major role in influencing health policies. This integrative systematic review aimed to assess the effects of planned media interventions—including social media—on the...

Authors: Lama Bou-Karroum, Fadi El-Jardali, Nour Hemadi, Yasmine Faraj, Utkarsh Ojha, Maher Shahrour, Andrea Darzi, Maha Ali, Carine Doumit, Etienne V. Langlois, Jad Melki, Gladys Honein AbouHaidar and Elie A. Akl

Does a quality improvement campaign accelerate take-up of new evidence? A ten-state cluster-randomized controlled trial of the IHI’s Project JOINTS

A decade ago, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement pioneered a quality improvement (QI) campaign, leveraging organizational and personal social networks to disseminate new practices. There have been few ri...

Authors: Eric C. Schneider, Melony E. Sorbero, Ann Haas, M. Susan Ridgely, Dmitry Khodyakov, Claude M. Setodji, Gareth Parry, Susan S. Huang, Deborah S. Yokoe and Don Goldmann

Adapting an adherence support workers intervention: engaging traditional healers as adherence partners for persons enrolled in HIV care and treatment in rural Mozambique

Systematic adaptation of evidence-informed interventions that increase retention in care and improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) are essential to ending the HIV epidemic in rural sub-Saharan Afri...

Authors: Carolyn M. Audet, José Salato, Sten H. Vermund and K. Rivet Amico

Organizational supports used by private child and family serving agencies to facilitate evidence use: a mixed methods study protocol

Challenges to evidence use are well documented. Less well understood are the formal supports—e.g., technical infrastructure, inter-organizational relationships—organizations may put in place to help overcome t...

Authors: Emmeline Chuang, Crystal Collins-Camargo and Bowen McBeath

HIV policy implementation in two health and demographic surveillance sites in Uganda: findings from a national policy review, health facility surveys and key informant interviews

Successful HIV testing, care and treatment policy implementation is essential for realising the reductions in morbidity and mortality those policies are designed to target. While adoption of new HIV policies i...

Authors: Ellen McRobie, Alison Wringe, Jessica Nakiyingi-Miiro, Francis Kiweewa, Tom Lutalo, Gertrude Nakigozi, Jim Todd, Jeffrey William Eaton, Basia Zaba and Kathryn Church

The Evidence-based Practice Attitude Scale-36 (EBPAS-36): a brief and pragmatic measure of attitudes to evidence-based practice validated in US and Norwegian samples

Short and valid instruments for measuring factors facilitating or hindering implementation efforts are called for. This article describes (1) the adaptation of a shorter version of the Evidence-based Practice ...

Authors: Marte Rye, Elisa M. Torres, Oddgeir Friborg, Ingunn Skre and Gregory A. Aarons

A Hybrid III stepped wedge cluster randomized trial testing an implementation strategy to facilitate the use of an evidence-based practice in VA Homeless Primary Care Treatment Programs

Homeless veterans often have multiple health care and psychosocial needs, including assistance with access to housing and health care, as well as support for ongoing treatment engagement. The Department of Vet...

Authors: Molly M. Simmons, Sonya Gabrielian, Thomas Byrne, Megan B. McCullough, Jeffery L. Smith, Thom J. Taylor, Tom P. O’Toole, Vincent Kane, Vera Yakovchenko, D. Keith McInnes and David A. Smelson

Modifications to ART service delivery models by health facilities in Uganda in promotion of intervention sustainability: a mixed methods study

In November 2015, WHO released new treatment guidelines recommending that all diagnosed as HIV positive be enrolled on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Sustaining and expanding ART scale-up programs in resource-l...

Authors: Henry Zakumumpa, Sara Bennett and Freddie Ssengooba

Dimensions of sustainability for a health communication intervention in African American churches: a multi-methods study

Sustainability of evidence-based health promotion interventions has received increased research attention in recent years. This paper reports sustainability data from Project HEAL (Health through Early Awarene...

Authors: Mary Ann Scheirer, Sherie Lou Z. Santos, Erin K. Tagai, Janice Bowie, Jimmie Slade, Roxanne Carter and Cheryl L. Holt

Applying the Theoretical Domains Framework to identify barriers and targeted interventions to enhance nurses’ use of electronic medication management systems in two Australian hospitals

Medication errors harm hospitalised patients and increase health care costs. Electronic Medication Management Systems (EMMS) have been shown to reduce medication errors. However, nurses do not always use EMMS ...

Authors: Deborah Debono, Natalie Taylor, Wendy Lipworth, David Greenfield, Joanne Travaglia, Deborah Black and Jeffrey Braithwaite