What is Implementation Science
"Implementation science is the study of methods that influence the integration of evidence-based interventions into practice settings."
Per the Fogarty International Center, "Implementation science is the study of methods to promote the integration of research findings and evidence into healthcare policy and practice. It seeks to understand the behavior of healthcare professionals and other stakeholders as a key variable in the sustainable uptake, adoption, and implementation of evidence-based interventions."
For an interactive online tutorial introducing the fundamental principles and terminology of Implementation Science, Click here
Implementation Science Resources from the Penn Libraries
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Comparative Effectiveness Research in Health Services by ISBN: 9781489975867Publication Date: 2020The online version of the Handbook of Health Services Research is in the format of a dynamically updated knowledge base, offering search tools, cross-referencing across chapters and linking to supplement data, other major reference works and external articles. The Handbook of Health Services Research is accessible at the level of graduate students even if it is not their focus area. This includes students with various backgrounds: medicine, public health, statistics, economics, management or information technology -
Dissemination and implementation research in health : translating science to practice by ISBN: 9780190683245Publication Date: 2017
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Implementation Science at a Glance: a guide for cancer control practitionersThis resource, Implementation Science at a Glance, is intended to help practitioners and policy makers gain familiarity with the building blocks of implementation science. Developed by our team and informed by our ongoing collaborations with practitioners and policy makers, Implementation Science at a Glance introduces core implementation science concepts, tools, and resources.
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Transforming Nursing Through Knowledge by ISBN: 9781945157639Publication Date: 2018-01-01Transforming Nursing Through Knowledge leaves no stone unturned, allowing readers to gain a full understanding of a nurse's role in developing, using, and evaluating the impact of knowledge tools in healthcare. (ebook forthcoming)
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Implementation Science and PracticeISBN: 9780195389678Publication Date: 2012Bibliography of implementation science in social work. -
Dissemination and implementation research in health: translating science to practiceISBN: 0190683244Publication Date: 2017leading scholars and researchers have collaborated to put together this volume to address a number of key issues in Dissemination and Implementation Research. -
Handbook on Implementation Science by ISBN: 9781788975988Publication Date: 2020-05-21The Handbook on Implementation Science provides an overview of the field's multidisciplinary history, theoretical approaches, key concepts, perspectives, and methods. By drawing on knowledge concerning learning, habits, organizational theory, improvement science, and policy research, the Handbook offers novel perspectives from a broad group of international experts in the field representing diverse disciplines. The editors and contributors seek to advance implementation science through careful consideration of current thinking and recommendations for future directions. Featured key concepts include strategies, context, outcomes, fidelity, adaptation, and sustainability. Chapters introduce topics, define them, and explain their application in implementation science with examples that resonate with a diverse readership including implementation researchers, instructors, students, and practitioners with experience in the field ranging from novices to experienced scholars.
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Core Competencies for ImplementationPrimer on applying implementation science, from TCI and Health Canada
Seminal Journal Articles on Implementation Science
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Isolation of health services research from practice and policy: the example of chronic heart failure management. Seow, Phillips et al. (2006)This study examined how health services research connects with practice and policy, first by investigating whether successful research projects continued in their test settings and
engendered replication and then by examining whether a coherent body of research helped shape public policy. Chronic heart failure (CHF) was studied because randomized, controlled trials of posthospital CHF disease management have repeatedly demonstrated patient benefits and reduced costs, yet this practice has not become standard in the United States -
The Break-Even Point: when medical advances are less important than improving the fidelity with which they are delivered. Woolf and Johnson. (2006)Society invests billions of dollars in the development of new drugs and technologies but comparatively little in the fidelity of health care, that is, improving systems to ensure the delivery of care to all patients in need. Using mathematical arguments and a nomogram, we demonstrate that technological advances must yield dramatic, often unrealistic increases in efficacy to do more good than could be accomplished by improving fidelity. In 2 examples (the development of anti-platelet agents and statins), we show that enhanced efficacy failed to achieve the health gains that would have occurred by delivering older agents to all eligible patients.
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The Meaning of Translational Research and Why It Matters. Woolf. (2008)What exactly is translational research? For many, the term refers to the “bench-to-bedside” enterprise of harnessing knowledge from basic sciences to produce new drugs, devices, and treatment options for patients. For this area of research—the interface between basic science and clinical medicine—the end point is the production of a promising new treatment that can be used clinically or commercialized (“brought to market”).
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Diffusion of innovations in service organizations: Systematic review and recommendations. Greenhalgh. (2004)This article summarizes an extensive literature review addressing the question, How can we spread and sustain innovations in health service delivery and organization? It considers both content (defining and measuring the diffusion of innovation in organizations) and process (reviewing the literature in a systematic and reproducible way).
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Implementation research: what it is and how to do itImplementation research is a growing but not well understood field of health research that can contribute to more effective public health and clinical policies and programmes.This article provides a broad definition of implementation research and outlines key principles for how to do it
Recent Implementation Science Publications from Penn Researchers (Pubmed RSS Feed)
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Implementation Science Journals and Organizations
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Implementation Research and PracticeOpen-access, international journal, jointly published by SAGE and the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC). First published 2020.
Penn Implementation Science Greatest Hits Reading list
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Eccles and Mittman: Welcome to Implementation ScienceThis commentary introduced the journal Implementation Science and includes definitions and a brief history of the field.
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Bauer, Damschroder et al. An Introduction to implementation science for the non-specialistThis review defines implementation science, distinguishes it from interventional research, explains the importance of frameworks, theories, and models, and reviews study designs used in implementation science research studies.
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Curran GM. Implementation science made too simple: a teaching tool.This teaching tool simply describes implementation science.This teaching tool simply describes implementation science.
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Lane-Fall MB, Curran GM, Beidas RS. Scoping implementation science for the beginner: locating yourself on the “subway line” of translational research.This teaching tool helps you place your research questions on the “implementation science subway line.”
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Nilsen, P. Making sense of implementation theories, models and frameworks.This review acknowledges that there are many frameworks, theories, and models (FTMs) used in implementation science and establishes a three-part taxonomy of these FTMs: process models, determinant frameworks, and evaluation models.
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Damschroder LJ, Aron DC, Keith RE, Kirsh SR, Alexander JA, Lowery JC. Fostering implementation of health services research findings into practice: a consolidated framework for advancing implementation science.This paper introduced what is now one of the most popular frameworks in implementation science: CFIR (pronounced “SEE-fur”), the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.
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Tabak RG, Khong EC, Chambers DA, Brownson RC. Bridging research and practice: models for dissemination and implementation research.This paper discusses the utility of frameworks, theories, and models (FTMs) in implementation science and offers an inventory of FTMs. Consider reading this paper after the Per Nilsen paper (above)
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Strifler L, Cardoso R, et al. Scoping review identifies significant number of knowledge translation theories, models, and frameworks with limited use.This paper provides an update to the literature on the current inventory of FTMs. (subscription access article)
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An Overview of Research and Evaluation for Dissemination and ImplementationThis paper is a broad overview of research designs relevant to implementation science, discussing challenges including threats to validity.
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Effectiveness-implementation Hybrid DesignsThis paper introduces the concept of “hybrid trials” that have a dual focus: intervention effectiveness and implementation strategy.
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Innovations in Mixed-Methods EvaluationsThis article reviews the use of mixed methods in IS research and explains different types of mixed methods research.
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Outcomes for Implementation Research: Conceptual distinctions, measurement challenges, and research agendaThis seminal paper introduces and defines eight implementation outcomes: acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, costs, feasibility, fidelity, penetration, and sustainability.
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Psychometric Assessment of three newly developed implementation science outcome measuresThis paper provides psychometric properties of 3 brief pragmatic measures of implementation outcomes
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A compilation of strategies for implementing clinical innovations in health and mental health.This article discusses six categories of implementation strategies: Planning, Education, Financing, Restructuring, Quality Management, and Policy.
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Choosing implementation strategies to address contextual barriers: diversity in recommendations and future directions.This paper describes how one might match implementation strategies to determinants.
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. Writing implementation research grant proposals: ten key ingredientsThis paper offers guidance to people writing grant proposals that include or focus on implementation.